Why is zirconia known as “ceramic steel”

Zirconia ceramics is a special ceramic material emerging in recent years. It has phase transformation toughening and micro-crack toughening, so it has high strength and toughness, and is known as “ceramic steel”. Zirconia has the highest fracture toughness of all industrial ceramics.

Using the excellent room temperature mechanical properties of zirconia ceramics to optimize the zirconia formulation and process, a fine-grained zirconia ceramic with high hardness, high strength and high toughness is obtained. High hardness, high strength and high toughness ensure that zirconia ceramics have incomparable wear resistance compared with other traditional structural ceramics. Fine-grained zirconia ceramics can be processed to obtain very low surface roughness (<0.1um). Therefore, the friction coefficient of the ceramic surface is reduced, thereby reducing the friction force and improving the quality of the product.

The elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient of zirconia ceramics are similar to those of steel, so they can be organically combined with steel parts to form composite workpieces, which will not be damaged or burst due to inconsistent thermal expansion. Zirconia ceramics is a new type of high-tech ceramics. Compared with traditional alumina ceramics, it has the following advantages:

• 1. High strength, high fracture toughness and high hardness
• 2. Excellent wear resistance
• 3. The elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient are similar to those of metals
• 4. Low thermal conductivity.

The comparative performance parameters of zirconia and alumina are shown in the table

Project Unit Material 95 Porcelain 97 Porcelain 99 Porcelain Toughened Alumina Porcelain Zirconia Porcelain Hardness HRA ≥86 ≥88 ≥89 ≥90 88-90 Elastic Modulus GPA 320 350 390 300 220 Linear Expansion Coefficient X10-6/k 6.5-11.2 Minimum Remaining Unbalance Gmm/KG ≤0,8 Unbalance Reduction rate≥85%