ENGINEERING AND DESIGN SUPPORT FOR CUSTOM AND COMPLEX CERAMIC PART SOLUTIONS

Materion offers expertise in the manufacture of complex and custom ceramic part designs to meet our customers’ unique needs and specification by using a variety of machining functions. Input material used for customized products can be dry-pressed, iso-pressed or extruded to achieve the desired outcome and product requirements.

As a global leader in beryllium oxide (BeO) engineered ceramics, Materion has worked with customers to develop advanced ceramics to achieve superior levels of product strength, reliability, miniaturization, weight savings, and most critically, thermal management. Materion also offers Durox® aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) industrial ceramics, a cost efficient material used to make ceramic components with high tensile and high dielectric strength.

OFFERING A VARIETY OF MACHINING CAPABILITIES FOR CUSTOM CERAMIC PARTS

Materion offers a variety of complex and custom design machining functions to meet a customer’s specific requirements. These include:

Rapid Prototyping: With the addition of our new five-axis ultrasonic machining center, we now have rapid prototyping capabilities. It is an ideal solution to produce faster and more economical BeO and alumina prototypes than those created by conventional means.
CNC Surface Grinding: used when a customer's design has extremely tight tolerances - as low as 0.00008", 80 millionths- which can only be achieved by surface grinding the ceramic or to add in complex features such as grooves, notches, chamfers, radii and profiles.
Ultrasonic Drilling: used when a customer's tube or laser bore design has tighter tolerances on the ID than can be achieved by pressing, requiring that the ID of the tube or bores be drilled instead of pressed in.
OD/ID Grinding: used when a customer’s design has a tighter tolerance on the OD and/or ID profiling than can be met by pressing alone. The part is OD and/or ID ground to meet specifications. This type of machining can also apply any form, including threads, to tolerances as low as 0.0001”.
CNC Milling: used primarily to machine green (unfired) ceramic to near net shape, reducing the amount of post-fired machining which is more time-consuming and, therefore, costly. This function can also be used to mill in pockets, grooves, etc.

INNOVATIVE PROCESS AND SUPPORT EXPERTISE

Materion uses state-of-the-art equipment and the latest statistical process control methods in the manufacture of complex and custom parts to respond to our customers’ challenges. Our team of expert engineers assists customers in maximizing the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of their applications by providing innovative alternatives and design concepts.

Contact our ceramics engineers to learn more about our complex and custom parts services.