Traditional ceramics, one of two general classes, are commonly used in high-volume manufacturing to make building materials, household products, and various industrial goods. Although there is a tendency to equate traditional ceramics with low technology, sophisticated processes and advanced manufacturing techniques are often used where these materials are employed. This article examines several traditional ceramics, including structural clay, whiteware, glazes, enamels, portland cements, and concrete. It also provides a detailed account of fabrication methods, properties, and applications. As an example, common applications for structural clay include facing materials, load-bearing units, pavers, and ceramic tiles.

This article provides a discussion on various types of glasses: traditional glasses, specialty glasses, and glass ceramics. It provides information on glazes and enamels and reviews the broad classes of ceramic materials. These include whitewares, structural clay products, technical ceramics, refractories, structural ceramics, engineering ceramics, and electronic and magnetic ceramics. General processing variables that can affect structure and compositional homogeneity are discussed. Traditional ceramics that include both oxide and nonoxide ceramics are also reviewed. The article concludes with several examples of engineering ceramics.

This article provides an overview of the types, properties, and applications of traditional and advanced ceramics and glasses. Principal product areas for traditional ceramics include whitewares, glazes, porcelain enamels, structural clay products, cements, and refractories. Advanced ceramics include electronic ceramics, optical ceramics, magnetic ceramics, and structural ceramics.

This article provides an overview of the steps that are used in ceramics processing and related mechanical design considerations. It discusses various design approaches, such as the empirical design, the deterministic design, and the probabilistic design. The article presents a general process design flowchart for ceramic processing. Information on traditional ceramics and advanced ceramics is also provided. The article describes various ceramic forming processes, such as wet processing, plastic forming, dry processing, and machining. The factors for evaluating different ceramic forming processes are summarized in a table. The article discusses vitrification and sintering that generally pertain to ceramic firing and concludes with a discussion on firing process factors.

The highly irregular morphologies of ceramic powder particles due to their process history present a challenge to binder jetting additive manufacturing (BJ-AM) ceramic powder feedstock processability, but knowledge of powder metallurgy of ceramics benefits the development and analysis of the BJ-AM ceramic processes. Understanding BJ-AM process principles and ceramics processing challenges requires reviewing a number of fundamental principles, which this article delineates. The discussion covers the processability considerations, a brief summary of some fundamental aspects of modeling of liquid permeation in the powder bed, and process capabilities and advantages of BJ-AM technology.

Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) testing is traditionally used for determining the plastic properties of metals (which are softer than the pressure bar material) at high strain rates. However, the use of this method for testing ceramic has various limitations. This article provides a discussion on the operational principle of the traditional SHPB technique and the relevant assumptions in the derivation of the stress-strain relationship. It describes the inherent limitations on the validity of these assumptions in testing ceramics and discusses the necessary modifications in SHPB design and test procedure for evaluating high-strength brittle ceramics. The article includes information on the maximum strain rate that can be obtained in ceramics using an SHPB and the necessity of incident pulse shaping. It also reviews the specimen design considerations, interpretation of experimental results obtained from SHPB testing of ceramics, and effectiveness of the proposed modifications.

Directed-energy deposition (DED) is a kind of additive manufacturing (AM) technology based on synchronous powder feeding or wire feeding. This article provides a comprehensive coverage of DED for ceramic AM, beginning with an overview of DED equipment setup, followed by a discussion on DED materials and the DED deposition process. The bulk of the article is devoted to the discussion on the microstructure and properties of oxide ceramics, namely alumina and zirconia ceramics.

This article provides a summary of the concepts discussed in the articles under the Section “Post-Processing and Assembly” ASM Handbook, Volume 21: Composites.

Ceramics usually require some form of machining prior to use to meet dimensional and surface quality standards. This article focuses on abrasive machining, particularly grinding, and addresses common methods and critical process factors. It covers cylindrical, centerless, and disk grinding and provides information on tooling, wheel selection, work material, and operational factors. It also discusses precision slicing and slotting, lapping, honing, and polishing as well as abrasive waterjet, electrical discharge, laser, and ultrasonic machining.

This article provides a discussion on the structural ceramics used in gas turbine components, the automotive and aerospace industries, or as heat exchangers in various segments of the chemical and power generation industries. It covers the fundamental aspects of chemical corrosion and describes the corrosion resistance characteristics of specific classes of refractories and structural ceramics. The article also examines the prevention strategies that minimize corrosion failures of both classes of materials.

This article presents an overview of advanced composites, namely, polymer matrix composites, metal-matrix composites, ceramic-matrix composites, and carbon-matrix composites. It also provides information on the properties and applications of the composites in thermal management and electronic packaging.

Quantitative image analysis has expanded the capabilities of surface analysis significantly with the use of computer technology. This article provides an overview of the quantitative image analysis and optical microscopy. It describes the various steps involved in surface preparation of samples prone to abrasion damage and artifacts for quantitative image analysis.

This article presents a detailed account of the processes involved in vat-photopolymerization-based fabrication of ceramics, namely bioceramics, structural ceramics, piezoelectric ceramics, optical ceramics, and polymer-derived ceramics. Information and methods of material preparation, curing characteristics, green-part fabrication, property identification, process design and planning, and quality control and optimization are introduced. The article also provides information on postprocessing techniques, namely debinding and sintering, as well as on the phenomenon of shrinkage and compensation.

The characterization, testing, and nondestructive evaluation of ceramics and glasses are vital to manufacturing control, property improvement, failure prevention, and quality assurance. This article provides a broad overview of characterization methods and their relationship to property control, both in the production and use of ceramics and glasses. Important aspects covered include the means for characterizing ceramics and glasses, the corresponding rationale behind them, and relationship of chemistry, phases, and microconstituents to engineering properties. The article also describes the effects that the structure of raw ceramic materials and green products and processing parameters have on the ultimate structure and properties of the processed piece. The effects that trace chemistry and processing parameters have on glass properties are discussed. The article describes mechanical tests and failure analysis techniques used for ceramics.

Hardness characterizes the resistance of the ceramic to deformation, densification, displacement, and fracture. It is usually measured with conventional microindentation hardness machines using the Knoop or the Vickers diamond indenters. This article discusses the metrology issues of the Knoop and the Vickers hardness in ceramics. It explicates how to estimate fracture toughness from Vickers indentation cracking. The article also provides information on instrumented hardness testing and the Meyer law.

This article provides a basic introduction to the various aspects of full density powder metallurgy, including properties, applications, processing methods, and process parameters.

For the reinforcement of metal-matrix composites, four general classes of materials are commercially available: oxide fibers based primarily on alumina and alumina silica systems, nonoxide systems based on silicon carbide, boron fibers, and carbon fibers. This article discusses the key aspects of aluminum oxide fibers, silicon carbide fibers, boron fibers, and carbon fibers. The commercial fibers for reinforcement of metal-matrix composites are presented in a table. A tabulation of the coating schemes for silicon carbide monofilament fibers is also provided.

There are huge numbers of publications and data available on ceramics, especially the basic types that cover their friction, wear, tribological mechanisms, high-temperature behavior, tribochemistry, and also lubrication conditions. This article summarizes the key overall research findings found in several comprehensive monographs. It discusses the types and properties of structural ceramics, as well as typical properties that govern the friction and wear of ceramics. The article reviews the superlow friction of silicon nitride and silicon carbide, and describes wear-protective hydrated tribochemical layers. It concludes with information on the tribological applications of structural ceramics and composites.