Zirconia Ceramic Plates are flat parts used as wear plates, insulating barriers, substrate blanks, heat spreaders and precision reference surfaces.
Zirconia plates are used as thermal barriers and wear plates where toughness matters more than conductivity. The 2-3 W/m·K conductivity makes them effective insulators and the strength handles contact loading that would break a mullite plate.
Yttria-stabilised zirconia is the toughest of the engineering oxides, with 8-10 MPa·m½ fracture toughness and flexural strength to 1200 MPa. It absorbs the impact and side loads that would crack alumina, and it carries the lowest thermal conductivity of the structural ceramics here.
Two limits apply. Continuous service above roughly 800-1000°C destabilises the metastable tetragonal phase, and moisture between 200 and 300°C can trigger low-temperature degradation, so stabiliser grade is matched to the duty.
Specifications
| Maximum size | up to 400×400 mm |
| Thickness | 0.3-30 mm |
| Flatness | 0.005 mm per 100 mm |
| Parallelism | 0.01 mm |
| Surface finish | Ra 0.4 µm ground, Ra 0.2 µm lapped |
| Holes and slots | ground, drilled or laser cut |
| Edges | square, chamfered or radiused |
Zirconia Properties
| Composition | Yttria-stabilised zirconia (Y-TZP) |
| Density | 6.00-6.05 g/cm³ |
| Vickers hardness | 1200-1350 HV |
| Flexural strength | 900-1200 MPa |
| Fracture toughness | 8-10 MPa·m½ |
| Max. service temperature | 800-1000°C |
| Thermal conductivity | 2-3 W/m·K |
| Thermal expansion (20-1000°C) | 10.0 ×10⁻⁶/K |
Machining and Tolerances
Plates are pressed or tape cast, fired, then surface ground and lapped. Thin large plates are the most likely to warp, so material is removed in equal amounts from both faces to keep the stress balanced, and grinding is followed by a relaxation step before the final passes.
Where It Is Used
- Wear plates and chute liners in bulk handling
- Electrical insulation barriers in switchgear and heaters
- Hot platens and press tooling in electronics manufacturing
- Vacuum chuck and metering surfaces in semiconductor equipment
- Precision reference and gauge blocks in metrology
Frequently Asked Questions
How flat can a large ceramic plate be held?
0.005 mm per 100 mm is the working standard for lapped plates. Larger areas are harder, and above 300×300 mm we generally specify flatness over a defined area rather than across the whole plate.
Will it warp when I bolt it down?
It can. A plate that is flat when unclamped will follow a distorted mounting face, so we recommend a relieved or lapped mounting surface, evenly torqued fixings and a compliant interlayer.
