From silicon nitride igniters running 100,000+ cycles in Italian pellet stoves, to high-purity alumina components for semiconductor wafer processing — we manufacture seven advanced ceramic materials in-house, machined to your drawing or sintered from our stock geometries.
Each material below is sintered, ground, and inspected in-house. We don't trade — we make. Click any material for full datasheet, grade variants, and typical applications.
Our most-shipped material. Engineered for thermal shock and cyclic loading — proven across 10+ million ignition cycles in Italian pellet stove field deployments. BLK series igniters reach service temperature in 3 seconds.
The workhorse industrial ceramic. We stock 95%, 99%, and 99.7% purity grades — covering wear-resistant linings on the low end and semiconductor-clean components at the top.
Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia — the toughest oxide ceramic we make. Stress-induced transformation toughening gives ZrO₂ the highest fracture resistance of any material in our catalog.
Reaction-bonded (RBSC) and sintered (SSiC) variants available. The hardest material in our catalog after diamond — used where abrasive wear and high temperature converge.
Engineered for heat dissipation in electronic packaging. AlN combines ceramic-grade electrical insulation with thermal conductivity approaching aluminum metal — 10× higher than alumina.
The third-hardest material on Earth after diamond and cubic BN. Hardness HV 3000+ at density 2.52 g/cm³ — lighter than aluminum metal — makes B₄C the substrate of choice for personal armor, abrasive blast nozzles, and nuclear neutron absorbers.
The only ceramic that machines like graphite with conventional carbide tooling, but stays an electrical insulator and survives 2000°C in inert atmosphere. Non-wetting to molten metals — ideal for evaporation crucibles and aluminum casting dies.
Density, hardness, toughness, max service temperature — all seven materials in one chart.
View Comparison →A working engineer's reference. Values are typical ranges for our standard production grades. Custom compositions available — talk to our engineering team.
| Property | Si₃N₄ | Al₂O₃ (99.7%) | ZrO₂ (Y-TZP) | SiC (SSiC) | AlN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Density (g/cm³) | 3.2 | 3.9 | 6.0 | 3.1 | 3.3 |
| Hardness (HV) | 1500 | 1800 | 1300 | 2800 | 1200 |
| Fracture Toughness (MPa·m½) | 7.5 | 4.5 | 10.0 | 4.0 | 2.5 |
| Flexural Strength (MPa) | 900 | 400 | 1200 | 450 | 320 |
| Max Service Temp (°C) | 1400 | 1700 | 1000 | 1600 | 1200 |
| Thermal Conductivity (W/m·K) | 28 | 30 | 2.5 | 120 | 170 |
| Thermal Expansion (×10⁻⁶/K) | 3.2 | 8.0 | 10.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Dielectric Strength (kV/mm) | 12 | 14 | 9 | — | 15 |
Swipe horizontally to compare all materials →
Four common engineering questions, four short answers. Click through for the full selection guide PDF when you need to defend the spec to your team.
One of our longest-running OEM partners switched from a European competitor's alumina igniters to our Si₃N₄ BLK series in 2018. They ship 180,000 units/year, and warranty returns dropped 38% in the first 12 months on the new substrate.
Direct answers from our application engineers. Need a deeper dive? Email engineering@ceramitell.com with your drawing or duty cycle.