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Extrusion
Extrusions
Exceptional Products | Affordable Prices | Made in the USA
Exceptional ProductsAffordable PricesMade in the USA
Production Quality Is Our First Priority
Ceramic extrusion is similar process to the Play Dough sets most of us had as kids. Where you put the Play Dough into a press and it is forced through a die to achieve the net shape of the die that is at the end of the press.
To start the process, our special blend of raw materials and binders are mixed together to create a uniform mixture. Liquid is added to the material and mixed together until a crumbly paste type mixture is achieved. From here the material is removed from the mixer and put into the extruder chamber, where it is sealed and a vacuum is created. Once a vacuum is created, the piston/ram forces the material through the die at the end of the extruder. The net shape of the material is determined by the shape of the die.
Many different net shapes can achieved by extrusion. From a single hole round to a round with multiple holes to a square or a rectangular to even a star shape.
Material bodies for extrusion range from 85% alumina all the way up to 99% alumina and steatite.
Standard ceramic tolerances for extrusion are ±1% or ±.005, whichever is greater. Standard camber is .006"/1". Tighter tolerances can be achieved by post fire grinding at an additional cost.
To achieve the best possible part and to help aid in manufacturing and keep costs down, a wall thickness of no less than 10% of the O.D. should be maintained. However, we have successfully extruded parts with a wall thickness down to 5% of the O.D.
Please contact us for any of your extrusion needs. Our experienced staff is ready to work with you to achieve the perfect part for you application.
Green Machining
Green machining is a term used for machining ceramic material prior to firing. We do green machining for several reasons with the main reason being that machining alumina after firing is extremely costly. We have several HAAS CNC mills and lathes that we use for green machining, along with all the standard equipment found in any machine shop. These machines are specially outfitted for green machining. The CNC capabilities help us keep the costs down.
We have the ability to green machine low volume custom parts or prototypes. Green machining also allows us to add additional configurations to a part that has been either dry pressed or iso-pressed, which you normally could not obtain by these operations directly. These configurations could be in the form of multiple-stepped I.D.s and O.D.s as well as notches, cutouts, holes, or some type of shape on the sides of these already-formed green parts.
ISO Pressing
ISO pressing is a forming process where our in house spray dried material is used to fill a mold and then compacted at around 20,000 PSI. ISO pressing is used to create blanks of certain sizes and shapes that cannot be easily formed by dry pressing or the extrusion process. These blanks can then be machined green or in the bisque state.
We also have the ability to ISO press certain net shapes.
Bisque
Bisque alumina is material that has been pressed or compacted into shape and then is partially fired. This enables the material to become harder than “green” material but not as hard as fully fired alumina. Bisque firing allows the material to be machined using conventional methods and tooling. Once bisqued, the material has a hard chalky feel to it.
Bisque material can be used to create prototypes or one off parts. Once the part is complete, bisque alumina can be fully fired to achieve a harder, fully dense part with all the properties of alumina.
Spray Drying
All the material we use at ACCI is made from scratch in house. We obtain the raw materials from various certified suppliers. From there the materials are combined and mixed together to create a slurry. Once the slurry has been mixed for a certain amount of time it is then spray dried back into a free flowing powder that can be used throughout the plant. Our spray dryed material is used in all our manufacturing methods for dry pressing, ISO pressing, and extrusion.
If you have any interest in spray dryed material please contact us directly to discuss your specific needs. We have the ability to spry dry small batches as well as large batches.
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