Traditional ceramics, or materials derived from naturally occurring clay minerals and quartz sand, are “almost as old as the human race.” Industrial ceramics, on the other hand, are inorganic, nonmetallic materials, “that exhibit such useful properties as high strength and hardness, high melting temperatures, chemical inertness, and low thermal and electrical conductivity but that also display brittleness and sensitivity to flaws.” You can find them all around you in floor tiles, porcelain sinks, car brakes, clutches, nuclear fuel pellets, and much more. Industrial ceramics are vital to the success of our economy, primarily supporting the automotive, healthcare, homeland defense, marine, aerospace, and telecommunications industries. Simply put, much of the world could not thrive without them. In turn, industrial ceramics could not thrive without magnets. High-quality material is becoming scarce, and, due to impurities, more metal must be removed to produce industrial ceramics. Magnetism is used to filter micro metal particles during the manufacturing process in order to create advanced, high-quality ceramic material. Whether it’s alumina ceramic, steatite ceramic, cordierite ceramic or zirconia ceramic, the material must be free of ferrous contaminants. Industrial Ceramic Filtering: How It’s Done The extraction process relies on products like magnetic rollers, industrial filters, clean flow magnets, and magnetic grates. These separators penetrate the flow of product to remove metal particles from powders or liquids at a high accuracy rate. To create your own magnetic grate, stack and align neodymium disc magnets to make what’s called a “cartridge.” Multiple cartridges make up the “teeth” of the grate, which is then placed directly into the product stream (hoppers, pits, chutes, housing, and bins) to attract metal contamination. Like magnetic sweepers on a warehouse floor, separators attract ferrous debris, which can be both dangerous and wasteful, allowing you to dispose of it as you please. Use Apex Magnets Today To build your own magnetic separator, jump straight to neodymium discs, cylinders, and block magnets. If you would rather discuss customization, which is more appropriate for large-scale orders, visit our custom magnets request form. Disc magnets, for example, can be custom produced with a maximum of 6 inches (153mm) in any single dimension. In some cases, we can bond smaller lengths together, but this may impact the magnetic properties. To talk it through, call us at (1-304) 257-1193.