Ceramic screws are corrosion and heat resistant

Most screws are made of steel. But high temperatures or acidic environments take their toll on this otherwise stable material. The alternative is ceramic screws. Researchers can now accurately predict their stress resistance.

Using a screw test rig and simulations, researchers at IWM in Freiburg and their colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden and the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management IWF at the Technische Universität Berlin have devoted themselves to exactly this question. "We're testing different ceramic screws and examining how much stress they can really withstand," explains Koplin. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF). Researchers are also optimizing the screw design. The challenge is that load capacity varies greatly even among ceramic screws of the same design; while one screw can tolerate a great deal, another breaks much sooner. The load on the screws is therefore limited by the stress that the weakest among them can withstand. The ceramic's composition is the deciding factor – if the tiny grains that make up the substance bond incorrectly during manufacture, small cracks develop which can later cause the material to fail.

Researchers have now optimized the manufacturing process so that such cracks no longer occur in any of the numerous process steps. "We were able to significantly reduce the range of the distribution curve and thus raise the stress resistance of the screws," says Koplin. He sees significant room for improvement in the last process step, in which the screws receive their thread, either via injection molding or sanding. Until that has been optimized, screw manufacturers can turn to the IWM and consult the project team about what design best suits which targeted screw load capacity value and what the ideal manufacturing process should look like.

The researchers have also used the test rig to test the stress resistance of ceramic screws manufactured in their own laboratories. Their load-bearing capacity exceeds that of their steel counterparts by between 30 and 35 percent. "This is a huge leap forward," says Koplin. "This would already be enough for many applications if the screw was a bit bigger."

Source: Phys Org
Posted by: Er_sanch.