Zirconia

MillenniTEK has decades of experience making durable ceramic components using Zirconia. Zirconia is a unique ceramic that has made into three crystalline structures. The most useful structure is the Yttria stabilized cubic structure, with 3 to 5% yttria added to zirconium oxide. This ceramic material is most famous for two common applications, dental implants (appearing white in color) and then in single crystal form jewelry. Single crystal cubic zirconia looks very much like diamond, though it differs from diamond by having low thermal conductivity.

Industrial applications of cubic zirconia often involve thermal insulation or abrasive wear. Hot or sandy application’s where high flexural strength is needed. Some examples are muffle tubes for glass fiber pulling furnaces, heat shields for jet engine exhaust, and mud pump liners for oil and gas drilling. The material does well with two phase fluid systems, involving suspended solids in medium to high pressure water. It also has great abrasive wear properties with low sliding friction, making it an excellent solution for bulk plastic processing or wear pads for snow removal equipment.

Millennitek presses, machines, and air fires its’ Zirconia products to order. Our team of experts can help you choose the correct yttria stabilization level for your application. Diamond grinding zirconia after firing should be minimized since that is very time consuming and expensive.