Technologies

Material preparation

At all major production sites, we manufacture our ceramic materials based on our own formulations and commonly available raw materials.

This allows us to ensure consistent quality right from the start of the process for our customers. Additionally, we provide high supply security through:

• Qualification of a wide range of raw material sources worldwide and
• extensive stockpiling with supply coverage of up to 5 years 

Shaping process

Our qualified design teams turn your requirements into production-ready components. In our in-house tool manufacturing departments, we use state-of-the-art milling, turning, grinding, and erosion machines to produce high-precision tools. These tools enable us to achieve tight tolerances, often without the need for separate hard machining.

Our expertise in shaping includes:

• Uniaxial and isostatic pressing
• Injection molding and casting</li<li>Extrusion
• Green machining
• Additive manufacturing

Click here to learn more details about each process.

Sintering technology

With over 50 sintering units operating in temperature ranges from 1200°C to 1800°C and with capacities from 0.1m³ to 14m³, we can precisely adjust the:

• Density
• Grain size
• Crystal structure

of ceramics under different sintering conditions. In addition to gas-powered units, we also use electric sintering furnaces, which are primarily powered by our own photovoltaic systems.

By monitoring all settings with our self-developed energy management system, we can oversee and optimise the sintering process energetically. We can very precisely and flexibly control the sintering conditions for each specific component, which is essential for ensuring consistent quality.

For critical applications, we produce our own customised kiln furniture to further stabilise sintering conditions. 

Precision machining

With more than 50 experts in Germany and Europe, we use state-of-the-art precision machines to shape ceramic components into extremely precise forms.

We are capable of creating complex geometries with a precision of up to 2 μm. Our expertise includes:

• Concentric internal and external grinding
• Flat grinding (parallel and single-sided)
• Turning
• Milling and honing
• Processing with diamond saws, ultrasonic, and laser

Using high-quality measuring technology, we ensure compliance with demanding tolerance ranges.

Surface design

A specific surface design for ceramic components often provides critical advantages in practical applications, especially in mechanical engineering.

Using a variety of specially developed processes and proprietary machinery, we create application-specific surface structures ranging from mirror-smooth surfaces to defined roughness and surface microgeometries:

• Mechanical processes
• Laser structuring
• Coating with glazes
• Ceramic coating using thermal spraying techniques

With high-quality analysis technology (e.g., scanning electron microscopy) and our optical surface scanning method, we can reliably verify defined surfaces.

Composite technology

Many applications require components made from different materials. Through metallisation and soldering, we can create highly stable and gas-tight connections between ceramic and metallic components.

To simplify the integration of our ceramic components into mechanical engineering applications, we offer our customers a variety of joining options to create “plug and play” components:

• Overmoulding ceramics into plastic parts
• Solutions through adhesive bonding and shrink-fitting
• Other assembly methods – including the provision of suitable metal parts

Metal 3D printing

We use the powder bed-based laser melting process. This method offers nearly unlimited design possibilities in component production – including weight and volume reduction as well as near-contour cooling channels. The production of cost-effective hybrid components is also possible.

We use materials such as tool steel or stainless steel.

Click here to learn more details about the process.