Technical ceramics for fluid technology

 

Fluid technology uses ceramic materials to transport and control fluids, for example through pumps, valves and nozzles. Chemical resistance and resistance to wear in use are valuable properties in high-quality applications in particular. Good stability of form permits reliable operation under uniform operating conditions.

These advantages make it possible to produce components with a long service life, but also demand care during manufacture and use. Choosing the right material from our portfolio is crucial to success, since these materials have different properties.

  • Pump technology: pump wheels; seals; slip rings & containment shells; shafts and shaft protection sleeves; radial & axial slide bearings; pistons & drive elements
  • Valve technology: slide valves (also rotary vanes); shut-off valves; ball valves; valve bodies (various: balls, plates, cones etc.); valve pistons & sleeves (control valves; dosing valves)
  • Nozzles: use is made here of the good resistance to abrasive wear of ceramics. Nozzles are optimised to an operating point and generate the desired spray pattern, matched to the spray medium, through the shape of the lip of the nozzle. In addition to the spray angle this also involves the size and distribution of the spray mist. Stable and efficient processes (e.g. combustion engines) require that the spray pattern be maintained within narrow tolerances.

Ceramic nozzles are also operated with solid mixtures (for example sandblasting, glass bead blasting). The carrier medium can be either air or a fluid. A typical application is the introduction of lime flour in flue gas desulphurisation. Water jet cutting for the separation of hard and tough materials uses a suspension of water and abrasive hard materials (for example aluminium oxide or silicon carbide) at pressures > 4,000 bar. In all of these applications, the lip of the nozzle (but also the focusing pipe) are subjected to sliding abrasion through extremely abrasive particles.

In addition to chemical resistance, applications in the fields of chemicals, analysis, biotechnology (homogenisation of milk or creams) or pharmaceuticals also demand a high degree of biocompatibility, which is reliably achieved with ceramic materials.