Modern Engineering Ceramic and its uses you didn't know

Introduction

Ceramic is a solid material which is made from the mixture of processed clay, water, and inorganic earthen elements.  This mixture is shaped in mold then hardened by firing it in specialized oven called kiln. After this process, ceramic becomes a rigid material that is high in strength. Ceramic is non-metallic, it has high melting point, and poor electrical conductivity.¹ Ceramic has diverse range of uses like in pottery, toilets, constructions, tiles, and in places where thermal and electrical insulators are required.

Ceramic Vase

Modern Engineering Ceramic

In today’s world ceramic is not restricted to plates, glasses and bricks but there are many engineered ways to use ceramic. Modern engineering ceramic has applications in but not limited to electronics, automobiles and airplanes, medical surgeries, paint industry, music industry, and earthquake monitoring.     

Advantages and Drawbacks of Engineering Ceramic

One engineered application of ceramics is ceramic brake pad.² The advantage of using it over other materials is that it doesn’t stick to the wheels and doesn’t produce much dust. The drawback of using this type of brake pad is that it is expensive and can result in deterioration of brake rotor. Ceramic is used in surgeries also.³ The use of ceramic in surgeries doesn’t require revision procedure in many cases. But for replacement of a hip joint, there can in rare cases be failure when there are ceramic implants. A type of ceramic, called ceramic microsphere is proposed to make environmental friendly paint that also makes the paint anticorrosive.⁴ These ceramic paints are very expensive.  

Loud speakers are essential for parties, live shows, hangouts, cinemas, beaches or even for a person alone in the home. Engineered ceramic is a part of loudspeakers. It is fixed in the loudspeakers as piezoelectric ceramic ring.⁵ This type of ceramic ring is fixed into ultrasonic motor of the loudspeaker that allows the loudspeaker to be used where large amplitude or high volume of speaker is required. This property makes the loudspeaker outstanding for a joyous occasion. However, for ceramic loud speakers a high voltage is required as compared to other speakers

            Earthquake accelerometers that are used to measure seismic activity are essential to detect earthquakes.  A ceramic material which is called ceramic substrate was used to make a model of earthquake accelerometer.⁶ This model showed how to enhance the sensitivity of the earthquake accelerometer. This accelerometer had working limits under specified temperatures and stresses.

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Conclusion

Ceramic is a strong material that is made from clay. Nowadays, the use of ceramic is not limited to kitchen pots, plates, knifes, construction bricks, tiles, and toilets but it has find its way to many engineered products and gadgets.  Its engineered applications include components of computer, parts of vehicles and aircrafts, surgeries and transplants, and earthquake engineering apparatus. There are more pros of engineering ceramic than cons. Cons are basically related to expensiveness of ceramic but if the product is working without wearing out for a longer time period as compared to other materials then it can be used preferably . 

Notes

1.      Madsen, L. D., and A. A. White. 2014. “Investments in Ceramic Science, Engineering

and Education for Sustainability by the U.S.A. National Science Foundation.” Journal of Electroceramics 32(1): 60-65.

2.      Krenkel, W. 2002. “Design of Ceramic Brake Pads and Disks.” In 26th Annual

Conference on Composites, Advanced Ceramics, Materials, and Structures, Florida, 2002, 319-330. Florida: The American Ceramic Society. 

3.      D’Antonio, J. A., W. N. Capello, and M. Naughton. 2012. “Ceramic Bearings for Total

Hip Arthroplasty Have High Survivorship at 10 Years.” Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® 470(2): 373-381.

4.      Deyá, C., B. del Amo, and R. Romagnoli. 2012. “Ceramic Microspheres to Improve

Anticorrosive Performance of Phosphate Paints.” Ceramics International 38(4): 2637–2646.

5.      Ohga, J., H. Negishi, I. OOHIRA, H. Saito, K. Oishi, and K. Maeda. 2013. Loudspeaker

for Low Frequency Signal Driven by Four Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Motors.” Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics 19(1): 1-8.doi: 10.1121/1.4799232. 

6.      Ramini, A., K. Masri, and M.I. Younis. 2013. “Electrostatically actuated resonant

 switches for earthquake detection .” In Mechatronics and its Applications, 9th International Symposium, Amman 2013, 1-7. Amman: IEEE. 

Bibliography

D’Antonio, J. A., W. N. Capello, and M. Naughton. 2012. “Ceramic Bearings for Total Hip

Arthroplasty Have High Survivorship at 10 Years.” Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® 470(2): 373-381.

Deyá, C., B. del Amo, and R. Romagnoli. 2012. “Ceramic Microspheres to Improve

Anticorrosive Performance of Phosphate Paints.” Ceramics International 38(4): 2637–2646.

Krenkel, W. 2002. “Design of Ceramic Brake Pads and Disks.” In 26th Annual Conference on

Composites, Advanced Ceramics, Materials, and Structures, Florida, 2002, 319-330. Florida: The American Ceramic Society. 

Madsen, L. D., and A. A. White. 2014. “Investments in Ceramic Science, Engineering and

Education for Sustainability by the U.S.A. National Science Foundation.” Journal of Electroceramics 32(1): 60-65.

Ohga, J., H. Negishi, I. OOHIRA, H. Saito, K. Oishi, and K. Maeda. 2013. Loudspeaker for Low

Frequency Signal Driven by Four Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Motors.” Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics 19(1): 1-8.doi: 10.1121/1.4799232.  

Ramini, A., K. Masri, and M.I. Younis. 2013. “Electrostatically actuated resonant switches for

earthquake detection .” In Mechatronics and its Applications, 9th International Symposium, Amman 2013, 1-7. Amman: IEEE.

    

 Written by,
Engr. Ayesha Alam Khurram

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Ayesha Alam Khurram

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