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The Many Uses of High Purity Alumina The difference between aluminum and alumina is akin to the difference between sand and a sandwich. Aluminum is an element, alumina is a compound; aluminum is a metal, alumina can show up in granular forms resembling sugar or baby powder. And in most of what we will discuss here, it's being used in ceramics as opposed to a metal.
At home, alumina is a key component in a certain kind of ultra-durable countertop, and it is used in all kinds of electrical ceramics.You can find alumina in high-tech items such as magnetic media or floppy discs, and you can find it in simple items in your bathroom cabinet — toothpaste or deodorants. High purity alumina has so many abrasive uses it's hard to list them. It was used to polish the hard drive in your computer. You can even find it in body armor. For that matter, it can make a super-sharp cutting edge, too. Transparent ceramics are often used for windows in extreme operating environments — fighter aircraft, for instance. Pretty exciting stuff for something few people have ever heard of... even though they are near it every day. |
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This amazing and versatile compound can be used for items as diverse as false teeth, surgical implants, laundry soap or spark plugs. In lighting, polychrystaline alumina tubes can be found in street lights; an alumina phosphor dust can be found in fluorescent bulbs. In automobiles, you can find it used as a flame retardant under the carpets, and you can find it in the heart of anti-pollution devices such as catalytic converters.