Silicon Nitride
Core Technologies/Capabilities - Silicon Nitride for highly demanding thermal and wear applications.
MTC Stourport is unique within the Morgan group in offering Silicon Nitride. The company has over 25 years of experience in the manufacture of Silicon Nitride, with experienced and highly skilled machinists providing solutions to the most demanding of customer requirements.
What is Silicon Nitride?
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) is a relatively new member of the ceramics family, being developed in the 1960’s. It is used in many varied applications, but it lends itself particularly to applications where high temperatures are involved. This is not limited to continuous temperatures, as with many ceramics, because of Si3N4’s exceptional thermal shock resistance, it is also widely used in cyclic thermal applications. Combine this with Silicon Nitrides outstanding wear resistance, superior hardness and excellent strength characteristics, you then recognize one of the best performing materials available.
What is so special about Silicon Nitride?
- Manufacture by a range of methods to suit volumes from one-off requirements to very high volume applications
- Excellent wear resistance/hardness
- Low thermal expansion
- Good chemical corrosion resistance
- High temperature performance
- Good thermal shock behaviour
- Good flexural strength
- Low weight
- High Stiffness
- Electrically insulating
What are the types of Silicon Nitride?
There are two main types of Silicon Nitride; porous and fully dense. Porous can be identified as Reaction Bonded Silicon Nitride (RBSN), whose characteristics are described here. The types of fully dense Silicon Nitrides are varied dependant on the additives used and the manufacturing process, giving Silicon Nitride the widest range of properties of all ceramics.
