Silicon Carbide

Silicon carbide (sic) is one of the most popular high performance tribo-materials, which has been commercially available for more than twenty-five years. Its features include:
· excellent abrasion and wear resistance
· excellent corrosion resistance
· low coefficient of friction
· low coefficient of thermal expansion
· high thermal conductivity
· hardness greater than tungsten carbide
different grades of silicon carbide are available as following:
· reaction bonded silicon carbide (rb sic) – a very economical material which gives excellent wear characteristics, as well as good chemical resistance.
· sintered silicon carbide (ssic) – the absence of free silicon makes it most resistant to chemically-aggressive fluids, and ideal for high temperature applications.
· graphite-loaded silicon carbide – this is a composite of silicon carbide and free graphite. Graphite is added to rb sic (rb sic + c) or ssic (ssic + c), to improve tribological behavior by enhanced lubricity.