Steatite vs. Alumina
Both steatite and alumina are oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 23 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (3, in this case) are not shown.
For each property being compared, the top bar is steatite and the bottom bar is alumina.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 540 to 620 | |
| 1920 to 2750 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 68 to 120 | |
| 220 to 370 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 32 to 150 | |
| 260 to 430 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.23 | |
| 0.22 to 0.24 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 60 to 220 | |
| 210 to 290 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 750 to 1230 | |
| 650 to 1730 |
| Maximum Thermal Shock, °C | 90 to 160 | |
| 200 to 300 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 850 to 860 | |
| 870 to 940 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 1.8 to 2.5 | |
| 14 to 30 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 7.0 to 9.0 | |
| 6.7 to 8.2 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 Hz | 6.0 | |
| 8.0 to 9.0 |
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 5.7 to 6.5 | |
| 7.8 to 11 |
| Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential), kV/mm | 7.9 to 16 | |
| 8.9 to 12 |
| Electrical Dissipation At 1 Hz | 0.0014 to 0.022 | |
| 0.00031 to 0.0011 |
| Electrical Dissipation At 1 MHz | 0.0010 to 0.0060 | |
| 0.00049 to 0.0013 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 8.0 to 11 | |
| 6.2 to 14 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 1.9 to 2.8 | |
| 3.4 to 4.1 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 14 to 32 | |
| 35 to 53 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 52 to 83 | |
| 57 to 62 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 6.4 to 32 | |
| 14 to 23 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 13 to 42 | |
| 19 to 28 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 0.79 to 1.1 | |
| 3.7 to 10 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 5.1 to 33 | |
| 4.9 to 14 |