Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS
Submicrometer Al2O3 ceramic (average grain size 0.56 µm).
Higher hardness of sintered corundum by smaller grain size (realistic record requires measurement of macrohardness HV10 at 10 kg testing load).
Improved ballistic strength by increased hardness of sub-micron sintered Al2O3 ceramics (depth-of-penetration test with steel backing [EMI Freiburg]; almost no influence of strength).
Improved protective efficiency by high hardness of submicrometer ceramics
Ceramic processing that avoids defects gives high-strength and very hard α-Al2O3 protective tiles of low weight.
Advantages
Very high hardness of sintered dense Al2O3 ceramic with sub-µm microstructure:
- Improved protective performance at low weight due to the correlation of high hardness and increasing mass efficiency
- To be manufactured by simple, pressureless sintering at low temperatures
Products and services offered
- Development of technologies to manufacture submicrometer Al2O3 protective materials, upscaling investigations
- Development of optimized materials for specific applications
- Application related investigations of the ballistic protective performance in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics (Ernst-Mach-Institut) Freiburg i.Br.