Transparent Ceramic for Monitoring Production Processes
Working with the ceramics experts of CeramTec, the company Hema Maschinen- und Apparateschutz has developed a particularly durable alternative to conventional viewing windows. Hema has armored its SRIW Panel with the transparent, robust and scratch-resistant, high-performance ceramic PERLUCOR®. This makes production process monitoring possible over long periods with constant and excellent quality.
Because of its outstanding characteristics, PERLUCOR® from CeramTec is an ideal material for applications in mechanical, plant and equipment engineering. The transparent ceramic shows its worth, for example, in cutting, sandblasting and chemical processing. Working together with Hema, the ceramics experts succeeded in using PERLUCOR® as a protection for viewing windows. The windows give a view into the machine, enabling the manufacturing process to be thoroughly monitored at any time. As protective restraints on machine tools, the windows prevent tools, workpieces and fragments from being spun out of the workspace of the machine.
Process monitoring with extra safety
To ensure both view and safety in equal measure, the safety windows from Hema are laminated with the transparent ceramic on the side facing the process. Because of its extraordinary hardness and high strength, PERLUCOR® is ideal for such applications: the materials used or produced in machine tools, such as metal swarf, can neither scratch nor destroy the transparent ceramic. With a hardness three to four times higher than conventional glasses, the transparent ceramic can survive even the harshest conditions. Furthermore, unlike glass, PERLUCOR® is inert. It reacts not at all or minimally with potential reagents. Clouding of the windows by mechanical or chemical action is therefore considerably delayed or completely prevented in comparison with conventional windows.
The SRIW Panel from Hema, for example, with its low profile of only about 3.5 mm, is particularly flat. It can be used, for example, in the machine doors of blasting cabinets. Even after many operating hours under bombardment with whirling, highly abrasive blasting media, the panel provides an unrestricted view into the cabin.
CeramTec will be exhibiting from the September 18 to 22 at AMB 2018 in Stuttgart, in hall 1, stand C50. Those interested can get on-the-spot information on cutting materials for hard turning, for processing hard-to-cut materials and for working cast iron. In addition, the company will be exhibiting milling tools that realize further potential savings in daily use.