Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA)

Applications:

• All applications where the structural strength should be better than alumina oxide
• Textil industry thread guides
• Ceramic pump components
• Ceramic valve components
• Ballistic protection
• Fluid delivery system components
• Biomedical applications

The main advantage of Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) is the additional strength and toughness over alumina with a lower cost than zirconia (YTZP, MSZ, CSZ).The combination of aluminum oxide and 10-20% zirconium oxide provides a much higher strength, toughness, hardness and wear resistance than alumina alone.The 20-30% increase in strength often provides the design criteria needed at a much lower cost than using zirconia.

A process called transformation toughening is the phenomenon that increases the fracture toughness of ZTA. When placed under stress, the zirconia particles change their crystal structure from a tetragonal to a monoclinic structure, causing a volume expansion that compresses the surrounding crack in the alumina matrix. ZTA should be considered for any application where structural strength is needed that exceeds the standard alumina properties