When people think of ceramics, they tend to think of materials such as porcelain or bone china. The kind of materials used to make fine crockery for eating upon. However ceramics are also used in engineering purposes too as you shall see below.

What are ceramics?

Ceramics are a broad category of materials which contain inorganic (not living), non-metallic (they don't contain metals or metal) compound. They often contain crystalline structures made up of oxide, carbide or nitride material. They are charecterised by their high hardness and therefore resistance to abrasion (scratching) and also their extremely high resistance to temperature. They are dimensionally stable in that they do not expand and contract like metallic or plastic compounds. Therefore they maintain their shape under extreme conditions. As with all materials they have their advantages and disadvantages.