Test and correlation analysis on material performance parameters of silicon nitride ceramic ball

ZHOU Fenfen, YUAN Julong, ZHAO Ping, LI Fan, PENG Yan, ZHENG Bin

(Ultraprecision Machining Center, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China)

Abstract: Aiming at the problems of imperfect material performance evaluation system of silicon nitride ceramic ball and uneven quality of ceramic balls from different manufacturers, the test of main performance parameter of ceramic balls from three different manufacturers (A, B, C), which contained the density, porosity, hardness, fracture toughness and crushing load was researched. The inherent relationship between various performance parameters of ceramic ball was analyzed by correlation analysis. An evaluation system which contained abovementioned performance parameters was established. Precision balance, hardness measuring instrument and universal testing machine were used to measure. The results indicate that the materials properties of ceramic ball can be comprehensive evaluated by the above evaluation system, the comprehensive performance of ceramic ball from B manufacturer is better, and the balls from C manufacturer cannot reach the evaluation standard for crushing load value is generally low, the correlation between fracture toughness and hardness is the maximum with negative correlation, and the correlation between crushing load and porosity is the maximum.

Key words: ceramic ball; material performance; crushing load; correlation analysis