As an important structural/functional integrated material, advanced ceramics are irreplaceable due to their unique properties. They have great application prospects in emerging strategic industries such as aerospace, new energy vehicles, semiconductors, high-end equipment, and the defense industry. They play an indispensable role, and the application of key products is developing rapidly. In the future, in which industries should the development of advanced ceramic materials be worth paying attention to?
Electric vehicle industry
According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to November, my country's production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 6.253 million and 6.067 million respectively, both increasing by about 100% year-on-year, with a market share of 25%. In addition to the growth rate of production and sales far exceeding the market during the same period, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 36%, and is still increasing. With the continuous advancement of electric vehicle technology, the replacement of its component materials and designs has accelerated. Advanced ceramic materials have been fully reflected in the application of new energy electric vehicles with their special performance advantages. Among them, HIP silicon nitride bearing balls (Hybrid Ball Bearings) and high thermal conductivity silicon nitride substrates are extremely popular.
HIP silicon nitride bearing ball
Compared with traditional bearings, the motor bearings of new energy vehicles have a higher rotation speed and require lower density and relatively more wear-resistant materials. The balls in silicon nitride ceramic bearings generate less friction and less heat in the bearing assembly. In particular, silicon nitride is a natural electrical insulator, which can reduce electrical corrosion caused by bearing discharge, avoid shortening the service life of bearings and lubricants, and ultimately lead to bearing failure. It is very suitable for application in fields such as electric vehicles.
In the era of electric drive, it is a trend for ceramic bearings to replace steel ball bearings. For example, the output shaft of the motor used by Tesla uses ceramic bearings, which are hybrid ceramic bearings designed by NSK, and the bearing balls are composed of 50 silicon nitride balls; domestic Xiaopeng P7, G9, Weilai ET7 and other models all use silicon nitride ceramic ball insulated bearings. In terms of preparation, the most widely used sintering processes for silicon nitride ceramic balls are hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and gas pressure sintering (GPS). Ceramic balls produced by these two processes are widely used in different use environments. Compared with GPS silicon nitride, HIP silicon nitride has better mechanical properties and higher fatigue life.
At present, the production of high-end ceramic bearing products is still dominated by Japanese, European and American companies, and the international market share and development direction are still controlled by well-known foreign companies. In 2015, my country National Materials High-tech Nitride Ceramics Co., Ltd. broke through the batch manufacturing technology of hot isostatically pressed silicon nitride ceramic balls, becoming the third company after Kustek in the United States and Toshiba in Japan, and the first company in China to form batch production of hot isostatically pressed silicon nitride ceramic materials. The products are exported to SKF in Sweden, Timken in the United States, GMN in Germany, and Forsa in Spain. In addition, Sinoceramic Jinsheng and others use similar processes to produce silicon nitride bearing balls with a bending strength of 1000 MPa.
High thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramic substrates
Silicon nitride ceramic substrates are mainly used in the power units, semiconductor devices and inverters of pure electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and have huge market potential and application prospects.
At present, the commercial application of high thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramic substrate materials requires thermal conductivity ≥ 85 W/(m·K), bending strength ≥ 650MPa, and fracture toughness 5~7MPa·m1/2. The companies that really have the ability to mass-produce high thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramic substrates are mainly Toshiba Group, Hitachi Metals, Nippon Electric Chemical, Maruwa and Nippon Fine Ceramics.
Domestic research on silicon nitride ceramic substrate materials has also made some progress. The thermal conductivity of the silicon nitride ceramic substrate prepared by the Beijing Branch of Sinoma High-Tech Nitride Ceramics Co., Ltd. using the tape casting process is 100 W/(m·K); Beijing Sinoma Artificial Crystal Research Institute Co., Ltd. has successfully prepared a silicon nitride ceramic substrate with a bending strength of 700-800MPa, a fracture toughness of ≥8MPa·m1/2, and a thermal conductivity of ≥80W/(m·K) by optimizing the sintering method and process.
At present, with the increasing penetration rate of new energy vehicles and the emergence of AI technology, electric vehicles are gradually developing towards intelligence. Many ceramic materials have also attracted the attention of automobile manufacturers, such as high-capacity MLCC, carbon ceramic brakes, lidar packaging materials, ceramic thermal conductive materials, etc.
Semiconductor Industry
The semiconductor industry follows the industrial law of "one generation of technology, one generation of process, one generation of equipment", and the upgrade and iteration of semiconductor equipment depends largely on the technological breakthrough of precision parts. Among them, precision ceramic components are the most representative semiconductor precision component materials, which have important applications in a series of major semiconductor manufacturing links such as chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, ion implantation, and etching. Such as bearings, guide rails, liners, electrostatic chucks, mechanical handling arms, etc. Especially inside the equipment cavity, it plays the functions of support, protection, and diversion.
Since 2023, the Netherlands and Japan have also successively issued new regulations or foreign trade laws to increase export license regulations for semiconductor equipment including lithography machines. The trend of semiconductor deglobalization has gradually emerged, and the importance of independent control of the supply chain has become increasingly prominent. Faced with the demand for localization of semiconductor equipment parts, domestic companies are actively promoting industrial development. Zhongci Electronics has achieved the localization of technically difficult precision parts such as heating plates and electrostatic chucks, solving the "bottleneck" problem in the domestic semiconductor equipment industry; Dezhi New Materials, a leading domestic supplier of SiC coated graphite bases and SiC etching rings, has successfully completed 100 million yuan in financing.
Energy saving and environmental protection industry
Membrane separation technology with ceramic membrane as the core is currently mainly used as a high-efficiency separation process to replace traditional filtration separation technology in filtration separation, concentration and purification, purification and impurity removal in process industries and special water treatment fields.
Among them, high-performance ceramic flat membranes can achieve the filtration, separation and purification of fluids in complex environments, and have the characteristics of high temperature and high pressure resistance, good chemical stability, high filtration efficiency, good reliability, low operation and maintenance costs, long service life, and greenness throughout the entire life cycle. It has been promoted and applied on a large scale in the fields of industrial park wastewater treatment, recycled water reuse, black and odorous water treatment, municipal sewage and distributed water treatment, and has broad market prospects. It is the most important development direction in the field of international high-performance ceramic separation membranes.
Biomedical Industry
With the development of society and the improvement of people's lives, the clinical application of artificial implants and artificial organs will become more and more extensive. Metal materials such as stainless steel and cobalt alloys have long been used as orthopedic curing and repair materials in my country because of their excellent mechanical properties and control properties, but metal materials have poor biocompatibility. Therefore, the research and market of bioceramics or coating materials with better compatibility and healthier are in explosive growth.
Biomedical ceramics such as Al2O3, ZrO2, ZTA, Si3N4 and their composite ceramic materials are often used in surgical load-bearing prostheses, dental implants, bone substitutes, etc. due to their excellent fracture toughness and wear resistance. Among them, silicon nitride combines the bactericidal effect and self-lubricating properties, and its implant has long-term stable biological stability; zirconium oxide is often used in dental restoration materials because of its good performance and beauty, but its strength is due to glass ceramics.
Aerospace Industry
In various extreme application environments, ceramics always stand out with their excellent performance. Among them, aerospace and military industry are very popular application markets for advanced ceramics. In the aerospace market, "high temperature resistance" and "stealth" are the two main development lines of ceramics.
As the potential of single crystals, thermal barrier coatings and active air cooling is gradually exhausted, the new generation of military aviation engines has an increasingly urgent demand for new high temperature resistant structural materials, and SiC/SiC-CMC has become one of the first choices for high temperature resistant structural materials. Silicon carbide fiber plays a major role in strengthening and toughening SiC/SiC-CMC. Silicon carbide fiber with a temperature resistance of more than 1200℃ is the most critical raw material of SiC/SiC-CMC and has become the focus of research competition among aviation powers.
With the continuous improvement and change of application scenarios, the application fields of ceramic ball bearings are becoming more and more extensive. At the same time, the quality and service life requirements of hybrid ceramic ball bearings are becoming more and more stringent. TKW will provide better products to meet the market's requirements for hybrid ceramic ball bearings in terms of high speed, high precision, energy saving and environmental protection.
