Milling Aluminium Oxynitride (ALON)?

jitspoe · 01-26-2012, 10:51 PM

Anybody know if this is possible? It's kind of like transparent aluminum:

MAKE | Transparent Aluminum

But more accurately it's a ceramic:

Aluminium oxynitride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It would be expensive, but how awesome would it be to have a body that's completely transparent like glass?

ApoC_101 · 01-27-2012, 12:04 AM

good luck with that, lol

Tesko · 01-27-2012, 02:22 AM

I won't say impossible, just very very improbable... and incredibly expensive. Simply put this is not the intended application for that kind of material, from the source you linked it's uses are in optics and armor - relatively simple shapes.

alpha434 · 01-27-2012, 02:44 AM

I've worked Silicon Aluminum Oxynitride before... It's possible to do limited machinework on it before it's sintered. After the sintering process, you're limited to machining it with industrial diamond bits.

Or grinding.

The big challenge with using industrial diamond bits (besides cost) is that they only come in so many shapes... Which limits the type and scope of the operations you can perform.

The big limiting factor in using many ceramics in mechanical applications is deformation in the sintering process. This would require the aforementioned expensive machinework that can be mostly be avoiding by choosing the right ceramic... And although I don't know the dimensional details of Aluminum Oxynitride, Silicon Aluminum Oxinitride was cheap and suffered a lot of dimensional shift.

jitspoe · 01-28-2012, 01:24 AM

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured. If it was feasible, somebody probably would have done it by now. I think the most difficult part would be the threads.

Sure would be neat, though.

01-26-2012, 10:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
jitspoe Newbie Join Date: Jan 2008	Milling Aluminium Oxynitride (ALON)? Anybody know if this is possible? It's kind of like transparent aluminum: MAKE \| Transparent Aluminum But more accurately it's a ceramic: Aluminium oxynitride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It would be expensive, but how awesome would it be to have a body that's completely transparent like glass?

01-27-2012, 12:04 AM	#2 (permalink)
ApoC_101 Avratech Industries Inc. Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Maple Ridge, BC Canada	good luck with that, lol __________________ ☼ Josh Grasby, Machinist/Airsmith/Paintballer Extraordinaire ☼ If you play with skill, style, class, finesse, honour, integrity, pump or semi, you play paintball.

01-27-2012, 02:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
Tesko Seasoned Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Calgary (it's in Canada)	I won't say impossible, just very very improbable... and incredibly expensive. Simply put this is not the intended application for that kind of material, from the source you linked it's uses are in optics and armor - relatively simple shapes. __________________ Feedback: MCB \| CC \| Ao.org \| SCPB \| For everything Cocker & Sniper Related and then some - Custom Cockers

01-27-2012, 02:44 AM	#4 (permalink)
alpha434 like a Stegosaurus. Join Date: May 2008	I've worked Silicon Aluminum Oxynitride before... It's possible to do limited machinework on it before it's sintered. After the sintering process, you're limited to machining it with industrial diamond bits. Or grinding. The big challenge with using industrial diamond bits (besides cost) is that they only come in so many shapes... Which limits the type and scope of the operations you can perform. The big limiting factor in using many ceramics in mechanical applications is deformation in the sintering process. This would require the aforementioned expensive machinework that can be mostly be avoiding by choosing the right ceramic... And although I don't know the dimensional details of Aluminum Oxynitride, Silicon Aluminum Oxinitride was cheap and suffered a lot of dimensional shift. __________________ Don't Freak Out. (Barrel) *A small upgrade for your Flex mask... (Ears)* Get your custom Ball Sizers right here! <-- NEW PRODUCT OFFERINGS 2/24/12 *The RIGHT kind of protection....! (Raincover)* Re-thread your gun for the Autococker Barrel standard The ReVents mask: It's what Russc wears. Cool Pro 2 (Mask)

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01-28-2012, 01:24 AM	#5 (permalink)
jitspoe Newbie Join Date: Jan 2008	Yeah, that's kind of what I figured. If it was feasible, somebody probably would have done it by now. I think the most difficult part would be the threads. Sure would be neat, though.