Powders of ceramic compound or mixture of several compounds are mixed (milled), pressed and heated, but melting temperature is not exceeded. Only partial melting may occur (in case of mixture of several compounds).

During sintering the powder particles fuse together thereby lowering the melting point and increasing the uniformity of material.

During sintering the powder particles fuse together increasing materials density and properties

Ceramic crystal structure comprises of ionic and covalent bonds

ceramic contains pores

Ceramic structures always contain defects (dislocations and vacancies)

ceramics contains glass phase

hot-pressing

casting into high-temperature molds

reactive sintering

high-temperature self-propagating synthesis

Technical ceramics density is usually lower

Steel hardness is significantly lower

Steel toughness is lower

Steel tensile strength is higher

Technical ceramics are more easily machinable

higher hardness

less sensitivity to surface and internals defects

higher strength

higher toughness

Ionic bonds

Covalent bonds

Tensile bonds

Unit-cell bonds

Metallic bonds

Van der Waals bonds