Ceramic Nitride Materials And Their Explanations, Properties, Applications

We explained the carbide ceramics and types in an other article in Mechanical Base which are very important materials in toolmaking. So various ceramic materials can find place very important engineering applications themselves. One of these ceramic materials also ceramic nitride materials. In this article, we will explain the types of ceramic nitride materials, ceramic nitride properties and applications.

What Are The Nitrides?

The general ceramic nitride materials that are used in engineering applications are; titanium nitride(TiN), boron nitride(BN), and silicon nitride(Si3N4). These nitride materials has very specific properties and applications.

• Titanium Nitride: It is the only nitride material that has electrical conductivity. It has very good wear resistance and high hardness properties. ANd has very low friction coefficient with ferrous metals. Because of these properties, titanium nitride is used in tool making.
• Silicon Nitride: It is very suitable ceramic nitride material for high temperature applications. Because, silican nitride is oxidizes at 1200 celsius degrees and decomposes at around 1600 celsius degrees. Because of that resistance to high temperature, and high creep resistance, Silicon Nitride is used ar rocketery, crucibles and other high temperature applications.
• Boron Nitride: Boron nitride has various molecular structures such as hexagonal as carbon and cubic as diamond. Also boron nitride has comparable properties with diamond for example in terms of hardness. Cubic boron nitride(CBN) which is a very important material in toolmaking, is produced by heating hexagonal boron nitride to obtain cubic molecular structure. CBN has extreme hardness. In some areas in machining, even CBN is not comparable with diamond. CBN is generally used in steel machining and diamond is used in non-steel machining operations.

Like other ceramics, nitride ceramics also very important aspects for manufacturing and engineering. Do not forget to leave your comments and question about ‘types of ceramic nitrides and their applications’ below!