Sialon ceramics have good toughness, high hardness, wear resistance, and high-temperature oxidation resistance. The main components are silicon, aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen. It is a solid solution of the silicon-aluminum-oxygen-nitrogen system and its related material system. A (Si, Al) (O, N) tetrahedron is the basic structural unit. According to the different structures and components, we can divide it into three types: α’ Sialon, β’ Sialon, and Ο’ Sialon.
Sialon ceramics are solid solutions of silicon nitride Si3N4 and aluminum oxide Al2O3. Its name is the combination of the symbols of these four elements.
The raw materials for preparing Sialon ceramics are Si3N4, Al2O3, AlN, Y2O3, and other metal oxides. It is easy to achieve densification through liquid phase sintering during sintering. The preparation process can adopt pressureless sintering, hot pressing sintering, gas pressure sintering, or fast hot pressing sintering.
Sialon ceramics have been used in wear-resistant parts such as engine parts, bearings, and seals, as well as tool materials. We can use it in the smelting, rolling, and casting of copper and aluminum alloys. The α’ Sialon has high hardness. So we use it as wear-resistant parts such as bearings, balls, seals, and grinding balls for ceramic powders. The β’ Sialon can withstand high temperatures of 1300°C. So we can use it as bearings, balls, seals, positioning pins, tools, and non-ferrous metal smelting molding materials. We can use Ο’ Sialon as diverter rings and nozzles for continuous metal casting, thermocouple protection, crucibles, alloy tube drawing mandrels, and die-casting molds.
