Help with Ceramic Balls specifications:
Size / Diameter
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Diameter / OD | The outer diameter (OD) or width of the sphere or ball shape. This is the average particulate diameter for raw materials such as spherical powders or microspheres. | ||
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ANSI / ABMA Grade | American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA) standard grades for balls or spheres use measures for sphericity or roundness deviation and ball diameter variation or tolerance and surface roughness tolerance for determination of ball grade. DIN and ISO 3290 provide similar European standards for ball grade specification along parameters similar to ABMA grade specifications. AMBA Grade 3 has a spherical deviation of 3 millionths of an inch (0.000003). AMBA Grade 5 has a spherical deviation of 3 millionths of an inch (0.000005). AMBA Grade 10 has a spherical deviation of 10 millionths of an inch (0.000010). ABMA Grade 25 has a spherical deviation of 25 millionths of an inch (0.000025). AMBA Grade 50 has a spherical deviation of 50 millionths of an inch (0.000050). AMBA Grade 500 has a spherical deviation of 500 millionths of an inch (0.0005). AMBA Grade 1000 has a spherical deviation of 1000 millionths or 1 thousandth of an inch (0.001). American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA) was formerly known as Anti Friction Bearing Manufacturers Association (AFBMA), so some manufacturers will still reference AFBMA grades. | ||
Search Logic: | User may specify either, both, or neither of the "At Least" and "No More Than" values. Products returned as matches will meet all specified criteria. | ||
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Ceramic Type
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Ceramic Type | |||
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Alumina | Alumina or aluminum oxide (Al2O3 ) is a compound of aluminum metal and oxygen usually used in the alpha alumina structural form. In its pure form, alumina is a white, high hardness ceramic. Fully-dense alumina can be translucent. Alumina has found wide application due to its versatility and a relatively low raw material cost. Depending on the purity and density, alumina is used for refractory tubes, industrial crucibles, analytical labware, dielectric substrates, wear components, refractory cements and abrasives. Alumina's main drawback is its relatively poor thermal shock resistance due its higher coefficients of thermal expansion and lower thermal conductivity compared to other pure ceramic materials such as SiC. | ||
Alumina-Zirconia | Zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) and other zirconia-alumina ceramics are often used in wear applications as an intermediate solution between alumina and zirconia. ZTA offers increased fracture toughness over alumina at a lower cost compared to pure or high zirconia ceramics. Depending on the purity and density alumina is used for refractory tubes, industrial crucibles, analytical labware, wear components, refractory cements and abrasives. | ||
Aluminum Silicate / Sillimanite | Sillimanite, fibrolite, aluminum silicate (Al2SiO5 ) is a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. Sillimanite is also a naturally occurring mineral. | ||
Calcium Aluminate | Calcium aluminate (CaAlO3) refractories are usually derived from calcium aluminate, calcium or alumina bearing minerals. Calcium aluminate is used in refractory cements and shapes as well as synthetic slag additions for metallurgical operations. | ||
Carbon / Graphite | Carbon without a crystalline structure is referred to as amorphous, vitreous, or glassy carbon. Graphite has a hexagonal crystal structure. | ||
Glass Ceramic | Glass ceramics are ceramics that can be fused and then molded, formed, ground, or machined using conventional glass fabrication techniques. After part fabrication, the glass ceramics' structure is transformed from an amorphous, glassy state to a crystalline ceramic state. MACOR® is widely applied glass ceramic with a fluorine rich glass composition approaching trisilicic fluorphlogopite mica (KMg3AlSi3O10F2). MACOR® is a trademarked proprietary material of Corning Corporation. Ceran®, Ceramat®, Robax® and Zerodur® are widely-applied proprietary glass ceramics from Schott Glass Corporation. | ||
Magnesia / Magnesite | Magnesia ceramics or refractories are based on compounds magnesium and oxygen. Magnesite or magnesia refractories or minerals are also known as magnesium oxide, magnesium carbonate, deadburned magnesite, calcined magnesite, periclase or magnesia clinker. Depending on the origin and processing, magnesia is divided into caustic, dead-burnt, fused, precipitated, sintered or calcined and synthetic magnesia forms. The high melting point (2800°C) and the heat resistance (1700°C in the reducing and 2300 °C in oxidizing atmosphere) of magnesium oxide make it suitable for the production of refractories. Magnesite is the naturally occurring mineral or ore used to produce magnesium oxide based refractories. Magnesite often contains iron, manganese or other activator elements. Magnesium oxide refractories with a carbon bond are frequently used in the steel industry. Magnesite refractories have good resistance to molten iron and steel. | ||
Sapphire | Sapphire is a high purity and density, single crystalline form of aluminum oxide, which may contain chromia, titania, yttria or other dopants. Sapphire is usually transparent or translucent. Sapphire ceramics are used in lasers, substrates, jewel bearings, watch crystals or other specialized optical, wear and electronic applications. Ruby, corundum, topaz are other names for natural or synthetic sapphire. Ruby is chromium doped sapphire used in optical filters and laser rods. | ||
Silica / Fused Silica | Fused silica is a compound of silicon and oxygen. High purity amorphous fused silica is a high performance ceramic with very low expansion, remarkable thermal shock resistance, low thermal conductivity, excellent electrical insulation up to 1000°C and excellent resistance to corrosion from molten metal and glass. | ||
Silicon Carbide | Silicon carbide (SiC) is a compound of silicon metalloid and oxygen usually used in the alpha silicon carbide structural form. SiC is a black, high hardness ceramic that usually is harder than alumina. Depending on the impurity additions, silicon carbide may be green or black in color. Fully dense silicon carbide can be transparent (moissanite). Silicon carbide has found wide application due to its versatility and a relatively low raw material cost. Depending on the purity and density SiC is used for refractory tubes, industrial crucibles, wafer semi-insulating substrates, wear components, refractory cements and abrasives. Alumina's main drawback is its relatively poor thermal shock resistance compared to materials with lower coefficients of thermal expansion. SiC forms a protective SiO2 skin that to prevents further oxidation at very high temperatures in non-reducing atmospheres. Silicon carbide has relatively high thermal shock resistance compared to other ceramic materials due its low coefficient of thermal expansion combined with high thermal conductivity. | ||
Silicon Nitride | Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is a compound of silicon and nitrogen. Silicon nitride has superior mechanical properties and forms a protective SiO2 skin at high temperatures. Silicon nitride ceramics are difficult to sinter by conventional means because the material dissociates above 1800oC. | ||
Titania / Titanate | Titania or rutile minerals (TiO2) are compounds consisting of titanium and oxygen. Titanates are compounds consisting of titanium, an additional cation (Ba, Al, Sr) and oxygen such as BaTiO3. Titania and titanates are usually used as additions to other refractories or for their specialized electrical or piezoelectric properties. | ||
Yttria | Yttria or yttrium oxide powders are used as additives strengthening ceramics, forming phosphors, microwave garnets and lasing garnets. Yttria powders are also used to form a molten metal resistant coating on the internal walls of crucibles. Yttria additions in zirconia ceramics can stabilize the tetragonal phase providing a transformation toughening mechanism. Yttria is used as a constituent in yttrium-iron garnets for microwave applications and neodybnium-yttrium-aluminum garnets for Nd:YAG laser applications. High temperature superconductors such as YBa2Cu3O also utilize yttrium. While not technically within the rare earth group, yttrium oxide shares many of the properties typical of REO materials. | ||
Zircon | Zircon is a compound of a zirconium silicate, ZrSiO4, which is found in nature in the form of zircon sand. Zircon has useful refractory properties. | ||
Zirconia | Zirconia or zirconium oxide (ZrO2 ) is an extremely refractory compound of zirconium and oxygen. Zirconia may have additions of calcia, magnesia or yttria to stabilize the structure into a cubic structure. Zirconia stabilized in the cubic crystal structure avoids cracking and mechanical weakening during heating and cooling. Certain zirconia materials have the ability to transformation toughen (tetragonal to monoclinic phase change) under applied stress and it is frequently used in wear applications requiring improved fracture toughness and stiffness over alumina. Zirconia ceramics possess excellent chemical inertness and corrosion resistance at temperatures well above the melting point of alumina. Zirconia is more costly than alumina, so it is only where alumina will fail. Zirconia has low thermal conductivity and it is an electrical conductor above 800°C. Zirconia is used to fabricate oxygen sensors or fuel cell membranes because zirconia possesses the unique ability to allow oxygen ions to move freely through the crystal structure above 600°C. Zirconia products should not be used in contact with alumina above 1600°C. Depending on the purity and density zirconia is used for refractory tubes, industrial crucibles, analytical labware, sensors, wear components, refractory cements, thermocouple protection tubes, furnace muffles, liners and high temperature heating element supports. | ||
Specialty / Other | Other unlisted, specialized, or proprietary refractory or clay material. | ||
Search Logic: | All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches. | ||
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Applications
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Applications | |||
Your choices are... | |||
Aerospace | Ball and sphere shapes suitable for aerospace application such as airframe bearings, gyroscopes (gyros), navigation systems, flow meters, avionic instruments and other aerospace parts. The metal balls are often manufactured from vacuum melted or aircraft grade steels, stainless steels, tool steels, silicon nitride and titanium nitride coated alloy steels. | ||
Agitators | Balls or sphere shapes are suitable corrosion and density (weight) for agitation or mixing applications such as the agitator balls often used in aerosol paint cans. | ||
Automotive | Automotive applications for balls include ball bearings, seating tracks or seat slides, safety restraints and seatbelt locking mechanisms, airbag balls, constant velocity (CV) joints, double offset joints, tripod joints, cross groove joints, spindle bearings, fuel injectors, dent removal devices, brake systems, baffle balls are hollow balls with through openings to reduce fluid movement (sloshing in tanks), transmission parts clutch assemblies, steering mechanisms and other critical automotive systems. | ||
Ballizing | Balls suitable for use in ballizing, ball broaching or hole-sizing processes. In ballizing, a hard carbide ball is forced down a bore. The ball is slightly larger than the bore, which caused the bore to be expanded. The internal bore's surface is plastically deformed and burnished. | ||
Bearing / Power Transmission | Ball sphere shape have suitable hardness, diameter variations and sphericity tolerances for ball bearing, ball joint, ball screw, slide, guide, CV joint, clutch, and other power transmission applications. | ||
Conveyors / Ball Transfers | Balls or sphere shapes have suitable characteristics for use in conveyors, ball transfer units, roller table, casters, roller or Lazy Susan applications. | ||
Couplings / Fasteners | Spring loaded balls are used in quick disconnect couplings or snap on fasteners and fastening systems. The balls is compressed the spring and then is release when it catches a hemispherical hollow indent in a surface. Socket wrenches often use this type of fastening mechanism to hold onto the socket. | ||
Deblinding / Screen | Screen balls are used in screeners, separators and sieving machines to deblind or knock up screen or sieve openings plugged with particulates or powder particles. Screen balls typical consist of rubber or plastic materials because these materials can absorb impacts without prematurely wearing out metal screens or cloth sieves. | ||
Electronics / Electrical | Electrically conductive brass, copper or precious metal spheres are used in electrical contact, contact balls, battery safety release, audio ball covers, switches and microelectronic interconnection applications. Dielectric balls and spheres can also find use in electrical and electronic applications. | ||
Float / Level Sensing | Lower density or hollow balls are often used in float and level sensing applications. | ||
Flow / Metering | Balls or sphere shapes used in flow meters, flow controllers and metering devices. Simple ball flow meters or ball rotameters use the flow of gas or liquid in a calibrated tube to move an indicating ball. The position of the ball in the graduated tube indicates flow level. | ||
Gaging / Alignment | Gage balls are used in dimensional measurement. Gage balls often have stem or can be attached to thread handle. Target ball provide a specific reference point e.g., LiDAR Targeting Spheres / Registration Spheres). Alignment balls are used in aligning components by providing a consistent spacing or gap regardless of the movement of the ball across the surface. | ||
Jewelry / Ornamental | Ball and sphere shapes suitable for jewelry or ornamental applications where surface finish, color and corrosion resistance are key factors. In body jewelry or body piercing applications, biocompatibility is another factor in the selection of balls. Ornamental applications include watches, spectacles eyeglass frames, wallpaper enhancement, crafts, home decoration, fence or post finials, flagpole tops and furniture. | ||
Medical / Biotech | Balls or sphere shapes for medical or biotech applications meet FDA or other cleanliness standards, can be sterilized or autoclaved, are biocompatible and in some cases fatigue resistant. The balls are typically manufactured in cleanroom environments and are used in flow controllers, spirometers, fluid metering devices, surgical tools, joint implants, assay beads, medicine balls, eye ball prosthetics, and other medical components. Glass, plastic, ceramic and metals with corrosion resistance and biocompatibility are used in biotechnology and medical applications. | ||
Pens / Roll-on Dispensers | Balls and sphere shapes suitable for pen tip and roll-on dispenser applications. Metal, carbide, and ceramic balls are used in pen tip applications. Plastic balls are used in roll-on dispensers to dispense films for deodorant, antiperspirant, adhesives, sealant and marking materials. | ||
Pollution / Vapor Control | Vapor or pollution control balls reduce chemical vapor emissions by providing a larger liquid surface in scrubbers for greater liquid and air or gas contact, which allow better control of heat losses, microbial growth, fume and odor releases, misting, evaporation, liquid evaporation, and contamination. Vapor containment balls are used a support media or packing in scrubbers, wastewater treatment units, biologically remediation systems, solvent recovery equipment and pollution control systems. | ||
Sprayers / Pumps | Balls designed for sprayer or pump applications such as sprayer pump balls, trigger spray balls, dispenser pumps, finger pump balls, lotion dispenser balls, and atomizer balls. Pump balls must have controlled sphericity and sufficient tolerances to properly seal (act as one way valve) and in some cases the ball also provides clearance for uniform flow or controlled metering of the sprayed liquid or dispensed grease, cream or slurry. | ||
Valves | Balls designed for valve applications such as check valve balls, ball valve balls, trunnion balls, segment balls, stem balls, three way balls, four way balls, poly or multiple way balls, two piece balls and stems kits, characterized balls, floating valve balls, Valve balls must have controlled sphericity and sufficient tolerances to properly seal against the valve seat. Ball valve balls have typically have a through hole and may have a thread bore, slot or stem. Characterized balls have a through hole with a specialized shape to provide a more uniform flow between the open and closed states. | ||
Specialty / Other | Other proprietary, patented or specialty applications such as downhole alignment components, drilling equipment, swivel balls, pinball machines, playpen, game balls, ball pits, weights, toys, bicycle parts, foosball balls, wiffle balls, hardness testers, handles, knobs, skates, drawer slides, spacers, fillers, support media, projectiles, marine parts, oil & gas components, mining equipment, door locks, and coffee makers. | ||
Search Logic: | All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches. | ||
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Features
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Features | |||
Your choices are... | |||
Corrosion Resistant | Materials are designed or suitable for service applications that require corrosion resistance. Medical, marine, aerospace, chemical process, automotive and jewelry application often require corrosion resistant balls. | ||
Dielectric / Electrically Insulating | The ball or sphere shape is manufactured from electrically insulating or dielectric material, which has very high resistivity. Dielectric balls are used when a system or a component of a system needs to be electrically isolated. | ||
Electrically Conductive | The ball or sphere shape is manufactured from electrically conductive materials, which has very low resistivity. Electrically conductive brass, copper or precious metal spheres are used in electrical contact and microelectronic interconnection applications. | ||
Refractory / High Temperature | Refractory materials are designed or suitable for service applications that require heat resistance for high temperature applications. Aerospace, engine, turbine, automotive, oil & gas, and chemical process applications may require heat resistant balls. Refractory and high-temperature materials are hard, heat-resistant products such as alumina cement, fire clay, bricks, precast shapes, cement or monolithics, and ceramic kiln furniture. Ceramic refractories have high melting points and are suitable for applications requiring wear-resistance, high temperature strength, electrical or thermal insulation, or other specialized characteristics. | ||
Hole / Bore | The ball or sphere has a blind hole or through hole. Balls with one or more through holes are key component in ball valves. Multiple holes can provide multiple way ball valves. Most ball valves use simple through holes with a circular cross section. Characterized balls have a "V" shaped hole, which allows more accurate flow control and throttling. | ||
Hollow | Ball shape is supplied or available with a hollow center. | ||
Nonmagnetic | The ball or sphere shape is manufactured from nonmagnetic materials. | ||
Stem / Trunnion | Balls have an attached stem or trunnion. Balls for valve often have stems or trunnions for locating and rotating the ball in the valve seat. | ||
Threaded | The ball has a modified shape consisting of a threaded blind hole, thread through hole or an attached threaded stem. | ||
Truncated / Flat | The ball has a modified shape consisting of a flat, recessed and/or stepped surface on one or more sides. | ||
Wear Resistant (Bearing / Tool Grade) | Ball or sphere shapes use materials that are designed or suitable for service applications which require wear or erosion resistance. The balls are usually precision-ground for bearing or tooling applications. Material compositions are chosen or tailored to have high hardness, low sliding friction and high wear resistance. Bearing grade polymeric or plastic products often use high molecular weight polymers (UHMW PE, HDPE) and/or solid lubricant additives. | ||
Specialty / Other | Other unlisted proprietary, patented or specialty features. | ||
Search Logic: | All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches. | ||
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