Silicon Nitride Ball Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

The report “Silicon Nitride Ball Market– Forecast (2024-2030)” by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments in the Silicon Nitride Ball market.

By Size: 0.5 - 1.0 Inch, 1.0 - 1.5 Inch and > 1.5 Inch.

By Application: Silicon Nitride Bearing and Silicon Nitride Valve Ball.

By Geography:  North America, South America, Europe, APAC and RoW. 

• Silicon nitride possesses exceptional characteristics. Bearings manufactured of this material have been used in the Space Shuttle's main engines. It is one of the few monolithic ceramic materials capable of withstanding the high thermal shock and temperature gradients generated by oxygen and hydrogen rocket engines. Throughout the Space Shuttle program, it proved to be exceedingly dependable. Silicon nitride has several advantages, including low friction, high wear and chemical resistance, high-temperature capacity and high electrical resistance. It is non-magnetic, light in weight and has a long service life. Silicon carbide was recently used in the brake discs of the McLaren P1, a high-end road car.

• Silicon nitride is mostly utilized to make engine components in the automobile sector. Glow plugs constructed of silicon nitride enable faster start-up in diesel engines, whereas swirl chambers or pre-combustion chambers reduce noise and pollutants.

• In the APAC region, China is a major market and sales are projected to be boosted by the country's rapid expansion of equipment and automotive production, as well as a thriving aftermarket for manufacturing machinery and vehicle repair.

0.5-1.0 Inch segment accounted for the dominant market share in 2023. Companies manufacture silicon nitride balls according to various diameters and surface roughness to meet the customers’ requirements globally, according to the end-use applications. The products are also made according to different ABMA grades from 1 to 20. For instance, Grades 1 and 3 can be categorized under <0.5 Inch (12.7mm), Grade 5 is for 1.0 Inch (25.4mm), Grade 10, 16 can be under 1.5 Inch (38.1mm). Most manufacturers list their product specifications and availability in mm for diameters, surface roughness in micro-inches and other factors. There are also specifications confirming ASTM specification F2094 and ISO 3290-2 Rolling bearings specifications etc.

The Silicon Nitride Bearing segment accounted for the dominant market share in 2023. Since silicon nitride is a bearing material, it is commonly used in full ceramic bearings as well as hybrid ceramic bearings in which ceramic balls are used in conjunction with steel races. Also, since silicon nitride ball bearings are tougher than metal, they have less contact with the bearing track. As a result, there is up to 80% less friction and a service life that is 3 to 10 times longer than steel. For high-temperature applications, silicon nitride ceramic ball and roller bearings are recommended over steel. This improves the bearing's corrosion resistance, allowing it to last longer at greater speeds. And because it has a larger modulus of elasticity than steel, it is stiffer, resulting in a smoother motion and less vibration with the contacting surfaces. Wind turbines, industrial bearings, high-end automobile bearings, skateboards, bicycles and rollerblades - all use silicon nitride ball bearings. Silicon nitride is a popular choice among Precision Ceramics' vast variety of technical ceramics.

North America is the major region dominating the Silicon Nitride Ball market with revenue of $79.88 m in 2021 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.52% during the forecast period of 2022-2027 to generate a revenue of $113.38 m in 2027. R&D spending by U.S. semiconductor companies tends to be consistently high, irrespective of annual sales cycles, which reflects the importance of investing in R&D for the production of semiconductors in the country. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), in 2019, the total U.S. semiconductor industry investment in R&D was $39.8 billion.  With the Increasing R&D expenditure on semiconductors in the country, the demand for Silicon Nitride Balls would also see an upsurge in their demand, which would further boost the Silicon Nitride Balls market growth. According to the Government of Canada, the total revenue for semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing was $4.4 billion in 2017, which increased from $4.3 billion in 2016.  In 2017, net revenues reached $556.39 million compared to $512.27 million in 2016, an increment from 8.6%. The manufacturing intensity ratio for this industry increased from 50.5% in 2014 to 50.8% in 2017. In many electric and electronic applications, such as semiconductors and more, Silicon Nitride Balls crystals are becoming increasingly important for their promising applications.

Silicon Nitride balls are typically used in bearings and have a high heat resistance with low friction. Silicon Nitride balls are commonly used in industries such as aerospace, military and defense, hybrid bearings and full ceramics bearings. Silicon Nitride balls are engineered for high-precision applications and are used by bearing designers and other precision product applications as they deliver unsurpassed performance in critical components such as hybrid bearings. Silicon nitride balls are non-corrosive, anti-magnetic and excel in low noise. Silicon nitride ball applications can be found in helicopter rotors, aircraft turbines, high-speed mixers in chemical reaction vessels, machine tolling, dental drills and vacuum pumps. Since lightweight Silicon Nitride weighs 60% less than steel, it reduces centrifugal force, skidding and wear under high speed and acceleration. The density of silicon nitride is less than half that of steel, reducing the centrifugal force during bearing rotation which enables faster-operating speeds. Silicon nitride balls have an insulating property which is highly effective in preventing electrolytic corrosion. This makes them the optimal solution as a countermeasure against premature bearing failure in electric motors. The non-magnetic property of silicon nitride is ideal for use in applications subjected to a magnetic field. Using steel balls in these applications may disturb the magnetic field or affect the rotating torque.  Superior Surface Finishing can extend Silicon nitride ball bearings' L-10 life to as much as 100 times that of steel bearings. Their high-temperature hardness is twice that of steel as these all-ceramic balls retain their strength and hardness at up to 1800 degrees F.

Silicon nitride ball bearings are ideally used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment and medical diagnostic equipment where magnetic fields are present. The non-magnetic property of silicon nitride is the primary reason for their use in applications subjected to a magnetic field. Using steel balls in such applications may disturb the magnetic field or affect the rotating torque. They are also indispensable in the semiconductor industry due to their excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Their high toughness and excellent thermal conductivity are critical for applications in extreme conditions. Semiconductor industry sales reached $600bn in 2021, growing at 20% last year and as per estimates, the industry is expected to grow around 7%-8% during this decade to reach $1 Trillion in revenue by 2030.  Computing & data storage and wireless communication sectors would contribute around 50% of this growth potential followed by Automotive electronics with 20%, industrial electronics with 15% and consumer electronics only contributing 10% during the period.  Specific applications in the semiconductor industry where silicon nitride balls are used include: 

• Pad dressers for wafer manufacturing

• Plasma Proof Ring for device manufacturing route

• Structural components for LCD & Lithography equipment

• Custom-made parts for Furnace and Chamber assemblies 

The performance of hybrid silicon nitride (Si3N4) ball bearings is superior to their all-steel predecessors. However, silicon nitride balls are sensitive to surface defects and can fail from fatigue spalls emanating from pre-existing c-cracks or partial cone cracks, due to crack growth driven by rolling contact fatigue (RCF). Silicon nitride ball manufacturing involves a lapping process to achieve the submicron ball finishing dimension and surface characteristics that produce (unavoidable) low-velocity ball collisions resulting in surface cracks nucleated by the radial tensile stress field, which is maximal at the contact periphery. C-cracks are more commonly observed in sphere-to-sphere collisions and they not only have nonplanar crack faces but also possess nonplanar crack tips, as opposed to the axisymmetric cone cracks that result from the normal collisions of spheres.  The cost of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods for silicon nitride balls scales exponentially with decreasing CFS and increasing ball diameter and can become a significant fraction of the overall manufacturing cost. In addition, the material is nonconductive and only slightly translucent, which complicates inspection procedures. 

Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Silicon Nitride Ball market. In 2021, the Silicon Nitride Ball Market share has been consolidated by the top ten players accounting for a significant share. Major players in the Silicon Nitride Ball Market are SKF, Coorstek, Toshiba Materials, Tsubaki Nakashima, Winsted Precision Ball, Ceratec Technical Ceramics BV, RGPBALLS S.r.l, Hoover Precision Product Inc, Redhill Precision Specialty Balls, Sinoma and others

 In 2019, Toshiba Materials Co Ltd and Heraeus Electronics entered into a partnership to jointly develop and produce metal ceramic substrates made of silicon nitride (Si3N4) for use in high-performance electronics.