Black silicon carbide main application

The main application of black silicon carbide (SiC) by volume is as an abrasive.

1. Abrasives (The Largest Application by Volume)

This is the dominant use for black silicon carbide. Its extreme hardness (9.5 on the Mohs scale) makes it ideal for grinding, cutting, sanding, and polishing a wide range of materials.

Common uses in this category include:

• Abrasive Blasting: Used for surface preparation (e.g., cleaning metal surfaces of rust, paint, and scale) and etching stone.

• Coated Abrasives: Sandpaper, grinding wheels, and cutting discs. It is especially effective on low-tensile strength materials like cast iron, bronze, and non-ferrous metals, as well as on stone, glass, and leather.

• Lapping and Polishing: A fine powder grit is used for precision finishing of hard surfaces.

• Wire Sawing: Granules of SiC are used in the multi-wire sawing process to cut silicon ingots into wafers for the solar and semiconductor industries.

2. Refractories (The Second Largest Application)

As discussed in the previous thread, this is a major high-performance application. Black SiC is added to refractory mixtures to drastically improve their properties.

Key refractory uses include:

• Kiln Furniture: Beams, posts, and plates that form the shelves in high-temperature industrial kilns and furnaces. SiC allows for faster firing cycles and heavier loads due to its strength and thermal shock resistance.

• Lining Components: Used in areas of blast furnaces, chemical incinerators, and non-ferrous metal processing furnaces (aluminum, copper) that require high wear resistance and thermal conductivity.

• Refractory Castables & Monolithics: Added as an aggregate to cement and ramming mixes to enhance abrasion resistance and thermal shock in linings.

3. Other Significant Applications

• Metallurgical Additive: Used as a source of silicon and carbon in iron and steel production (e.g., in the furnace charge for cast iron to improve metallurgical structure and strength).

• Ceramics: Added to clay bodies to increase their strength and thermal shock resistance in products like high-performance tiles.

• Electrical & Heating Elements: While green silicon carbide (higher purity) is more common, certain types of black SiC are used in electrical components and heating elements for very high-temperature furnaces due to its semiconductor properties.

• Wear-Resistant Parts: Used to make nozzles for sandblasting, pump seals, and cyclone liners where extreme abrasion is a problem.

Summary Table of Main Applications