Silicon carbide production process

Due to its low natural content, silicon carbide is mostly man-made. The common method is to mix quartz sand and coke, use the silica and petroleum coke in it, add salt and wood chips, put it in an electric furnace, heat it to a high temperature of about 2000 °C, and obtain silicon carbide powder after various chemical processes.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has become an important abrasive due to its great hardness, but its application range exceeds that of ordinary abrasives. For example, its high temperature resistance and thermal conductivity make it one of the first-choice kiln furniture materials for tunnel kilns or shuttle kilns, and its electrical conductivity makes it an important electric heating element. To prepare SiC products, firstly, SiC smelting block [or: SiC pellets] must be prepared.

Because it contains C and is super hard, SiC pellets were once called: emery. But be careful: it has a different composition from natural emery (garnet). In industrial production, SiC smelting block usually uses quartz, petroleum coke, etc. as raw materials, auxiliary recovery materials, spent materials, and after grinding and other processes, they are blended into a charge with a reasonable ratio and a suitable particle size (in order to adjust the gas permeability of the charge, an appropriate amount needs to be added.