Morgan Technical Ceramics has announced the launch of its new range of large piezoelectric (PZT) ceramic discs developed specifically for the defence and commercial sonar markets, thanks to a major breakthrough at the company’s manufacturing facility in Ruabon, North Wales.
Using an innovative new process, Morgan Technical Ceramics can now press, fire and machine discs and components up to 304mm in diameter. These are considerably larger than those previously manufactured at the site and offer a much lower radial frequency output than smaller PZT discs, allowing for improved acoustic range and drive.
Manufactured in a range of thickness, frequency and dimension, the new discs are available in machined thicknesses of 3mm to 30mm in PZT Navy I and Navy III types, and 3mm to 35mm in PZT Navy II, Navy V and Navy VI type piezoelectric formulations. Larger sizes are available on request, while thickness and frequency variations can also be tailored for individual customer requirements.
The new range of discs will be supplied with fired-on silver electrodes as standard to ensure a good adhesion for soldering and bonding, and to a thickness which can safeguard durability in high drive applications. These components can also be manufactured with Wrap-Around silver Electrodes (WAE) if bonding and soldering is required on the same face of the PZT component. The design of the WAE can be in many configurations or to customer design specifications.
Richard Carus, product sales manager – piezo components for Morgan Technical Ceramics, said: “We have a wealth of experience in both the design and manufacture of PZT ceramics. As a market leader in the field we need to keep pushing the boundaries to see what can be achieved. This latest manufacturing-led innovation has seen not only a major breakthrough in our core process manufacturing at the Ruabon site, but it has created a new range of products for our defence and commercial sonar customers. We are confident that this breakthrough paves the way for further additions to our large components range in the future.”
For more information go to www.morgantechnicalceramics.com.