Improvements in the principal characteristics of powders, granulometry and the degree of purity have played a decisive role in the breakthrough of advanced ceramics.

With new manufacturing processes, much more reactive powders have been obtained, with grain sizes on the order of one micron.

At the same time, impurity rates in the constituents have been reduced to extremely low levels.

This progress increases the reliability of ceramic parts and improves their specific properties (thermal conductivity, dielectric constant, etc.).

The improved quality of ceramic powders has also made commercial production possible, with deposition in thin layers.

The marketing of quality submicronic ceramic powders is allowing rapid development in the manufacturing of small parts that meet important tolerances of concentricity (less than 3µ) and circularity (less than 1µ) and allow the creation of holes smaller than 0.015mm.

A recent development in the ceramics industry, organometallic precursors open the way to new manufacturing processes for fibres, composites and coatings. These are organic molecules containing metal atoms (in particular silicium) which, by pyrolisis, create carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. These precursors have made it possible to create silicium carbonitride fibres used in the field of space. By infiltration of the liquid precursor into a fibrous structure, it is also possible to manufacture ceramic-matrix composites.

These same precursors are used to lay coatings on parts so as to improve their hardness, their frictional properties or their resistance to corrosion.