How to choose a ceramic material, how to specify a purity grade, where ceramics sit inside a semiconductor fab, and how to write an enquiry that gets an accurate quotation. Written by the engineering team at Dolphin Advanced Ceramic.
If you are specifying an advanced ceramic for the first time, these two guides answer most of the questions we receive.
Why steel fails in slurry service, alumina 92/95% tiles vs reaction-bonded SiC, the six duty variables that decide the choice — and an honest cost-per-tonne comparison.
Read the guide
A side-by-side property comparison of the four ceramic systems that cover most industrial demand, with the four-question decision rule our engineers apply to every new drawing — and an honest look at what actually drives the price of a ceramic part.
Read the comparison
Wafer handling, etch, CVD/PVD, CMP and thermal management — a part-by-part map of which ceramic is used where, why metals, polymers and quartz cannot do the job, and how to write a semiconductor-grade ceramic specification.
Read the guideAlumina tiles and reaction-bonded SiC for slurry, cyclones and chemical plants — selected by duty, not by catalogue.
Why a chute lining decision is really an impact-angle decision — where each material wins, why ceramic tiles crack at the wrong place, and how dead-bed design and hybrid linings settle most arguments.
Read the guide
The wear map of a cyclone, why a worn apex silently costs recovery before it costs parts, and an honest comparison of polyurethane, rubber, alumina and reaction-bonded SiC — plus the hybrid configuration most plants should run.
Read the guideWhy the fixing system fails before the ceramic, which ceramic survives which chemistry — and the hot-caustic trap that disqualifies reaction-bonded SiC in alumina refineries and digestion duty.
Read the guide
Ceramic pays on the parts that set internal clearance — throat bush first, then wear plates. Part-by-part selection, the velocity exponent that explains doubling wear, and where high-chrome or rubber still wins.
Read the guideGrinding is a density contest. Why ceramic media loses in coarse ball mills, wins outright in bead mills, and how to compare cost per tonne ground instead of price per kilogram.
Read the guideThe DMC wear map — inlet, cylinder, cone, apex — why the magnetite medium punishes every surface, and an honest split between polyurethane, alumina tiles and RBSiC, with cost-per-year arithmetic.
Read the guideDeeper material science for engineers who already know which ceramic family they want.
99%, 99.5%, 99.7%, 99.8% — what the number means, what the remaining fraction contains, how density, strength, dielectric behaviour and particle generation change with purity, and when the 99.8% premium is worth paying.
Read the guideHow plasma actually erodes a ceramic, why SiC resists it better than alumina, why focus rings are the fastest-wearing part in an etch tool, and how to evaluate the cost-of-ownership trade-off with real numbers.
Read the guidePractical guides for the engineering and procurement people who have to make the part real.
End effectors, vacuum chucks, cantilever paddles and lift pins — why the material is only half the decision, and how flatness, edge radius, surface finish and porosity decide whether a part generates particles.
Read the guide
The ten data points a ceramic factory needs to quote accurately, with a side-by-side example of a vague enquiry and a well-written one, realistic lead times, and five questions worth asking a new supplier.
Open the checklist
Every guide on this page is written by the engineering team at our Zibo plant and reviewed against the actual process routes we run — powder formulation, dry-bag and cold isostatic pressing, sintering to 1800 °C, diamond grinding to ±0.005 mm, metallization and brazing.
Tell us what the part does — temperature, medium, load, electrical duty and expected life — and we will tell you which ceramic to use, and which grade is a waste of money.