INSACO has developed specialized equipment and machining techniques to fabricate parts from technical ceramics to exacting tolerances that meet the critical needs of today’s design engineers. Since 1947, we have been deeply involved in not only fabricating and polishing precision parts, but our engineers have been a helpful resource to designers in guiding them to the optimal choice of material. Part of these discussions typically includes manufacturing capabilities that best allow repeatable performance while still controlling costs.
It is interesting to note that not all technical ceramics are super hard. Some are fragile, and some are quite tough against impact. In fact, all material properties vary quite a bit between different material choices. Some ceramics like sapphire are totally transparent and can serve as high strength, wear resistant windows or lenses.
Thermal conductivity varies tremendously between materials as well. For instance, some grades of silicon carbide conduct heat on a par with metals like aluminum.
Since it is often surprising to many designers that one of the hardest technical ceramics can actually conduct heat well, we came up with a novel “Science Experiment” to visually demonstrate this feature.