Material solutions that fuel innovation

GE Advanced Materials provides high performance material solutions that fuel innovation. From engineering thermoplastics, and silicon-based products and technology platforms, to fused quartz and advanced ceramics, GE Advanced Materials helps customers address unsolved problems, increase manufacturing productivity, deliver measurable returns on investment, and inspire new design possibilities.

Among its businesses are Plastics, Quartz, and Silicones.

GE Advanced Materials - Quartz is a global manufacturer of high-purity quartz and advanced ceramic materials for the semiconductor, telecommunications, lighting, electronics, personal care, metallurgy, and water purification industries.

A leading producer of boron nitride ceramics

A leading producer of boron nitride ceramics, GE has made significant investments in plant and equipment, and continues to expand production and invest in technology and personnel to serve the aluminum industry.

GE offers more than 50 grades of BN - from primary to highly crystalline forms - tailored to specific application requirements and in a full line of coatings, shapes, and additives. All of the company’s BN products, including coatings, meet the requirements for barium free parts.

Boron nitride is commonly used in the following applications:

• Electrically insulating/thermally conductive fillers for heaters, polymer matrices, adhesives, pastes, and potting compounds
• Lubrication applications for extreme heat or cold, extreme pressure, vacuum environments, or harsh chemical exposures
• Refractories and refractory coatings
• Mold/die release
• Metal/ceramic and ceramic/matrix composites
• Lubricants with incidental food contact and in/as lubricants with no food contact (16 BN grades listed in NSF International’s Nonfood Compounds White Book®: H-2, HX-2, and HX-1 designations)

General characteristics of boron nitride:

• Electrical insulator
• Low dielectric constant
• Low dielectric loss
• High temperature stability
• Thermal conductor
• Lubricious
• Inert
• Non-wetting

BN in metallurgy

Boron nitride has many excellent properties that make it useful in hot metal processing and as an additive in metal matrix composites and other refractory materials. These properties include the following:

• High temperature resistance
• Oxidation resistance up to 850°C
• Excellent lubrication properties
• Not wet by many molten metals or their slag
• Thermal shock resistance
• High purity
• Chemical stability

Boron nitride is a unique engineering material. It is a soft, machinable ceramic which can be combined with other refractory ceramics including aluminum oxide, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride, mullite and titanium diboride. This results in composites which are machinable, thermal shock resistant, and chemically compatible in a wide range of environments.

In combination with titanium diboride, for example, BN can be used as a heating source for the aluminum metallization of films and papers. BN composites are also used as break-rings in the horizontal continuous castings of steel and nozzles in rapid solidification processes.

Hot pressed BN and BN composites are used in the following metallurgical applications:

• Nozzles for atomization and rapid solidification processes
• Dams and refractories for containment and processing of a variety of molten metals
• Stir rods, stopper rods, and thermocouple protection devices
• Shields and insulators for PVD processes
• Crucibles and boats for molten metal containment

Boron nitride powder can be used as a lubricant, a mold release agent, and as an additive to metallic composites and other refractory materials to achieve superior thermal shock resistance and non wetting characteristics.

Worldwide supplier to the aluminum industry

As worldwide aluminum demand increases, GE’s global marketing and sales organization is prepared to provide technical support and service to aluminum producers and processors.

Contact us today to find out more about our products and services.

www.GEAdvancedMaterials.com
www.advceramics.com
www.gequartz.com

GE Advanced Materials, Quartz
22557 West Lunn Road
Strongsville, OH 44149
USA

Tel: +1 440 878 5700
Fax: +1 440 878 5928

 

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