Cermet

A cermet can combine attractive properties of both a ceramic, such as high temperature resistance and hardness, and those of a metal, such as the ability to undergo plastic deformation.

Cermets are used instead of tungsten carbide in saws and other brazed tools due to their superior wear and corrosion properties.

Composites of MAX phases, an emerging class of ternary carbides or nitrides with aluminium or titanium alloys have been studied since 2006 as high-value materials exhibiting favourable properties of ceramics in terms of hardness and compressive strength alongside ductility and fracture toughness typically associated with metals.

The United States Air Force saw potential in the material technology and became one of the principal sponsors for various research programs in the US.

The word cermet was actually coined by the United States Air Force, the idea being that they are a combination of two materials, a metal and a ceramic.

Ceramics possess basic physical properties such as a high melting point, chemical stability, and especially oxidation resistance.

Kennametal, a metal-working and tool company based in Latrobe, PA, USA, developed the first titanium carbide cermet with a 19 megapascals (2,800 psi) and 100-hour stress-to-rupture strength at 980 °C.

German scientists recognized that vacuum tubes with improved performance and reliability could be produced by substituting ceramics for glass.

[6] Today, cermet vacuum tube coatings have proved to be key to solar hot water systems.

Traditionally they have been used in fuel cells and other devices that convert chemical, nuclear, or thermionic energy to electricity.

The ceramic-to-metal seal is required to isolate the electrical sections of turbine-driven generators designed to operate in corrosive liquid-metal vapors.

Common materials used for bioceramics include alumina, zirconia, calcium phosphate, glass ceramics, and pyrolytic carbons.

One construction technique starts with the cermet material formulated as an ink which is printed on a substrate then cured with heat.

A cermet of depleted fissile material (e.g. uranium, plutonium) and sodalite has been researched for its benefits in the storage of nuclear waste.