Application

Boron carbide is an inorganic substance with the chemical formula B₄C, usually gray-black micropowder. It is one of the three hardest materials known and has a wide range of applications.

Boron carbide application

Introduction and Application of Boron Carbide

Boron carbide is a hard black crystal with metallic luster, commonly known as black diamond. It is a powder product made of boric acid and carbon materials smelted at high temperature in an electric furnace and crushed. The theoretical density is 2.52g/cm3, the melting point is 2450℃, and the microhardness is 4950kgf/mm2.

For The Defense Industry

Making bulletproof materials such as bulletproof panels in bulletproof vests, ceramic bulletproof tiles for military aircraft pilot cockpits, and ceramic bulletproof panels for modern armored personnel carriers and tanks. In the military industry, it can be used as a nozzle for making guns.

For The Nuclear Industry

Boron carbide can absorb a large amount of neutrons without forming any radioactive isotopes, so it is an ideal neutron absorber in nuclear power plants, and neutron absorbers mainly control the rate of nuclear reactions. Boron carbide is mainly made into controllable rods in nuclear reactors, but sometimes it is made into powder to increase the surface area.

Refractory Field

Boron carbide is used as an antioxidant additive for low-carbon magnesia-carbon bricks and castables. It is used in the key parts of high temperature resistance and erosion resistance in the iron and steel industry. Such as ladle, taphole (nozzle), slide plate, stopper rod, etc. The low-carbon magnesia-carbon bricks added with B4C have good conventional physical properties, oxidation resistance and thermal shock stability.

Engineering Ceramic Materials

Boron carbide is used to make nozzles for sandblasting machines, nozzles for high-pressure water cutting machines, sealing rings, ceramic molds, etc. B4C—SiC ceramics are considered to be a high-temperature corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant material with broad application prospects, and have been used in industrial nozzles, pump seals, and hot extrusion dies.

General Industry

Boron carbide is used to make high-grade wear-resistant welding rods to enhance the wear-resistant strength of the welding surface; used as grinding and polishing materials, abrasives for water cutting and diamond abrasive tool correction materials; high-precision polishing and grinding in the jewelry industry; used for hard alloys, gemstones Grinding, grinding, drilling and polishing.

Electrical Performance

A boron carbide-graphite thermocouple consists of a graphite tube, a boron carbide rod, and a boron nitride bushing between them. In inert gas and vacuum, the service temperature is as high as 2200°C. Between 600 and 2200°C, the potential difference has a good linear relationship with temperature.

Chemical Materials

Boron carbide powder is activated by halogen and can be used as a boronizing agent for steel and other alloys to boronize the surface of steel to form a thin layer of iron boride to enhance the strength and wear resistance of the material. It can also be used as a non-metallic additive for metal-based friction materials.

Sapphire Wafer

Boron carbide abrasives have excellent performance in double-sided grinding of sapphire wafers and back thinning and polishing of sapphire-based LED epitaxial wafers. Therefore, boron carbide abrasives (Mohs hardness 9.3) become ideal materials for processing and grinding sapphire crystals.

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