Material class
Ceramics & Glasses
Ionic/covalent bonding; crystalline (oxides, carbides, nitrides) or amorphous (glasses).
What you get
- Very high hardness and compressive strength
- Excellent temperature and wear resistance
- Chemically inert; good electrical insulators (some are ionic/electronic conductors)
What you pay for it
- Brittle — low fracture toughness, sensitive to flaws
- Difficult to machine; joining is challenging
- Thermal-shock sensitivity (except low-CTE grades)
Typical applications
Cutting tools, bearings, biomedical implants, thermal barriers, electronics substrates, armor.
Processing routes
Powder pressing + sintering, HIP, slip casting, tape casting, CVD/PVD coatings, glass melting/forming.
Ceramics & Glasses in the materials library
5 entries in the library belong to this class, each with its own property table:
- Alumina Al₂O₃ (99.5 %) — Oxide ceramic
- Zirconia Y-TZP (3Y) — Oxide ceramic
- Silicon carbide (SSiC) — Non-oxide ceramic
- Silicon nitride Si₃N₄ — Non-oxide ceramic
- Fused silica (SiO₂ glass) — Glass
Representative materials
Al₂O₃ZrO₂ (Y-TZP)SiCSi₃N₄WC-Co (cermet)Borosilicate & fused silica glass
Other classes
Materials library →
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Choosing within ceramics & glasses
The selector ranks candidates inside a class — and tells you when the right answer is in a different class entirely.