I was looking through the McMaster Carr catalog and came
 across this material called  Toughened Zirconia Ceramic.
 Five times the fracture toughness of alumina.
 254,000 psi compressive strength.
 90,000 psi flexural strength.
 932 degrees F.
 $27 a foot for .375" diameter rod. Enough for three seals.
 If we could find somebody to diamond grind this stuff it
 would be a major breakthrough in the cost of ceramic
 apex seals. Just like our teflon encapsulated silicon O-rings.
 If it worked.
 Ianette gets $200 each. >>

Does anyone have a CAD drawing in dxf format of a 2mm and 3mm Apex seal? I
haven't tore either of my
two engines down yet, to even look at one. This is just one example of what I
have been talking about here. This is
something I think we all would need, to make these engines more bullet proof
and cheaper. The more you
have made, the cheaper it will be. If we had the correct info on these parts,
we could e-mail the dxf cad file to a 1000 CNC shops
for a group quote. 1000 members x 3 apex seals  per engine = 3000 parts. Now
which do you think would be cheaper,
3 custom seals for one person, or 3000 parts for the group. This sounds like
a great idea, even though I don't know what
"Toughened Zirconia Ceramic" is, thisis where the engineers expertise comes
in, maybe we can get there opinions on this stuff, pro' and cons?
Rich Gillen

">  If it worked."
These are experimental in the fullest sense of the word. That includes
the exact size. You are on your own. Most of us would not risk it.

Paul Lamar
 
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