Machinable Ceramic (Macor-Type) Components — Properties, Grades and Applications
Machinable Glass-Ceramic · 可加工陶瓷 · LONGYI grades MCREA-01 / BN-T2300 · genuine Corning MACOR® on request
Machinable ceramic is a glass-ceramic engineered to be milled, turned, drilled and tapped with ordinary carbide tooling — no diamond grinding, no sintering, and no shrinkage to compensate for. LONGYI Precision Technology offers three ways into this material family: MCREA-01, an equivalent machinable glass-ceramic machined in-house from imported stock; BN-T2300, LONGYI's own in-house grade; and, on request, genuine Corning MACOR® purchased as raw stock and CNC-machined to your drawing. It belongs to the same wider family of advanced ceramics and technical ceramics as LONGYI's sintered materials, but its physics — and its trade-offs — are entirely different.
Material at a Glance
The only technical ceramic you can machine straight from stock — no sintering, no shrinkage.
All three options here — MCREA-01, LONGYI's in-house BN-T2300, and genuine Corning MACOR® on request — share a Young's modulus of just 65–67 GPa, about a third of Alumina's 320–360 GPa and a sixth of Silicon Carbide's 430–440 GPa. That low stiffness is exactly why ordinary carbide tooling cuts, drills and taps this material like a soft metal instead of requiring diamond grinding — and because it is machined from fully-fired stock rather than sintered, there is no shrinkage to predict or compensate for. Electrically it sits at the opposite extreme: volume resistivity clears 10¹⁶–10¹⁷ Ω·cm and dielectric strength reaches up to 129 kV/mm DC on genuine Corning stock, both the highest figures in the LONGYI range, backed by zero water absorption and near-zero porosity. The honest limit: flexural strength tops out at 94–108 MPa — the lowest here — and the service ceiling is 800 °C, so this is a vacuum-chamber, insulation and prototyping material, not a structural or high-temperature one.
How Machinable Ceramic Compares
Five properties that define where machinable ceramic fits — and where it does not. It leads the range on electrical insulation and trails on mechanical strength, on purpose.
Bars above are spaced evenly by rank, not to linear scale. Representative grades: Machinable = MCREA-01 / BN-T2300 (genuine Corning MACOR® reaches the high end noted for dielectric strength and resistivity) · Zirconia = ZOI60 · Porous Ceramic = PA/PS Series · Alumina = AOW37 / AOI38 · Silicon Carbide = SCB32 · Silicon Nitride = Si₃N₄-2 · Aluminum Nitride = ANG34. Values from LONGYI internal testing and supplier datasheets (Corning MACOR®, MCREA-01).
Machinable Ceramic Properties by Grade
Three ways into the same material family: genuine Corning stock, an equivalent glass-ceramic, and LONGYI's own in-house grade. Read the note below the table before comparing figures across columns — not everything here was measured under the same conditions.
| Property | Corning MACOR®Genuine · White | MCREA-01Equivalent · White | BN-T2300LONGYI Grade · White |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | |||
| Bulk Densityg/cm³ | 2.52 | 2.48 | 2.6 |
| Water Absorption% | — | 0 | 0 |
| Apparent Porosity% | — | 0.069 | — |
| Mechanical | |||
| Flexural StrengthMPa | 94 min | >91 | 108 |
| Compressive StrengthMPa | 345 (900 polished) | >508 | 488 |
| Young's ModulusGPa | 66.9 | 65 | 65 |
| Mohs Hardness— | — | 4 – 5 | — |
| Vickers Hardness HV1GPa | — | — | 11.5 |
| Thermal | |||
| Thermal Expansion×10⁻⁶/°C | 12.3 (25–800°C) | 7.2 (−50–200°C) | 7.2 (40–400°C) |
| Thermal Conductivity 25°CW/(m·K) | 1.46 | 1.46 | 2 |
| Max Use Temperature°C | 800 (1000 peak, no load) | 800 | 800 |
| Electrical | |||
| Dielectric StrengthkV/mm | 45 AC / 129 DC | >40 (1 mm sample) | >30 |
| Volume Resistivity 25°CΩ·cm | 10¹⁷ | 1.08×10¹⁶ | >10¹⁶ |
| Dielectric Constant@1kHz | 6.03 | 6 – 7 | — |
| Vacuum Performance | |||
| Outgassing Rateml/(s·cm²) | — | 8.8×10⁻⁹ (after 8h vacuum bakeout) | — |
| Helium Permeation Rateml/s | — | 1×10⁻¹⁰ (after 500°C bakeout, cooled) | — |
| Chemical Resistance — weight loss mg/cm² (95°C, 24h) | |||
| 5% Hydrochloric AcidHCl | — | 0.26 | — |
| 50% Sodium CarbonateNa₂CO₃ | — | 0.012 | — |
| 5% Sodium HydroxideNaOH | — | 0.85 | — |
| 5% Hydrofluoric AcidHF | — | 83 | — |
Corning MACOR® data is from Corning's published datasheet; MCREA-01 data is from the supplier's material report; BN-T2300 is from LONGYI internal testing. Thermal expansion figures are not directly comparable — they were measured over different temperature ranges (25–800°C for Corning MACOR® vs. −50–200°C / 40–400°C for MCREA-01 and BN-T2300) — treat them as separate figures, not a ranking. A dash (—) means the property was not reported for that grade, not that it is zero. All values shown are derived from laboratory testing; confirm suitability against your actual operating environment before specifying. Final part specification is governed by the approved drawing and order confirmation.
Do not use machinable ceramic with hydrofluoric acid or fluorine-based process chemistry. MCREA-01 loses 83 mg/cm² in 5% HF at 95°C for 24 hours — roughly two orders of magnitude worse than its 0.012–0.85 mg/cm² loss in HCl, Na₂CO₃ or NaOH under the same conditions. For HF cleaning steps or fluorine plasma, specify Alumina or Silicon Carbide instead.
What Each Number Actually Buys You
Which Option Do You Need?
Specify this when the drawing or qualification calls for material traceable to Corning by name — aerospace, defense or analytical-instrument programs that reference MACOR® directly. LONGYI purchases genuine Corning stock and CNC-machines it to your drawing; DC dielectric strength reaches 129 kV/mm, the highest of the three options. The trade-off is cost and lead time on imported raw material that LONGYI does not control.
- Flexural94 MPa min
- Dielectric129 kV/mm DC
- Resistivity10¹⁷ Ω·cm
The default recommendation for new designs that do not require the Corning name specifically. Compressive strength (>508 MPa) actually exceeds genuine Corning MACOR®'s as-machined value, and it carries published vacuum data — outgassing and helium permeation — that the Corning datasheet does not. Trade-off: it is not sold under the MACOR® name, so it is not the right choice where the brand itself is a requirement.
- Compressive>508 MPa
- Outgassing8.8×10⁻⁹ ml/(s·cm²)
- Resistivity1.08×10¹⁶ Ω·cm
LONGYI's own in-house grade, stocked and machined directly — the fastest lead time of the three because nothing has to be imported or cross-certified. Flexural strength (108 MPa) is the highest of the three and thermal conductivity is slightly better. Trade-off: it comes with LONGYI's own test data, not a third-party datasheet, for a customer's qualification package.
- Flexural108 MPa
- Thermal Cond.2 W/(m·K)
- Resistivity>10¹⁶ Ω·cm
MACOR® is a registered trademark of Corning Incorporated. LONGYI Precision Technology is not affiliated with or endorsed by Corning. For the genuine-Corning option, LONGYI purchases MACOR® raw stock directly from Corning and CNC-machines it in-house to your drawing — LONGYI does not manufacture the raw material itself. For the full Corning technical data sheet, please contact Corning directly. MCREA-01 and BN-T2300 are LONGYI's own equivalent machinable glass-ceramic grades — not Corning products — and are never sold or labelled under the MACOR® name.
Where Machinable Ceramic Is Used
Vacuum & Semiconductor
- UHV chamber insulators and feedthroughs
- Vacuum fixtures and jigs
- Semiconductor test fixtures
- Electrical feedthrough bodies
High Voltage & Optical
- High-voltage insulating standoffs and spacers
- Laser and optical mounting components
- Sensor housings
- High-voltage isolation blocks
Prototyping & Lab
- Prototype and single-piece custom parts
- R&D and laboratory components
- Design-iteration parts ahead of a sintered ceramic
- Short-run fixtures and test hardware
When Machinable Ceramic Is the Wrong Choice
We would rather tell you the limits up front than have you machine a part that fails in service. Each of these is a real boundary in the data above.
In 5% HF at 95°C for 24 hours, MCREA-01 loses 83 mg/cm² — roughly two orders of magnitude worse than its resistance to HCl, Na₂CO₃ or NaOH under the same conditions. Any HF cleaning step or fluorine-based plasma will attack this material; use Alumina or Silicon Carbide instead.
At 94–108 MPa flexural strength, machinable ceramic is the weakest material in the LONGYI range — about a third of Alumina's 350 MPa. For load-bearing parts, or once a design is finalized and moves to volume, Alumina costs less per part and is roughly three times stronger.
800°C is the lowest continuous service ceiling of any LONGYI material. For sustained use above that, Alumina (1700°C), Boron Nitride (1800–2100°C, inert atmosphere) or Aluminum Nitride (2200°C) all serve where machinable ceramic cannot.
Low hardness (Mohs 4–5, or 11.5 GPa HV1 for BN-T2300) and a fine glass-ceramic microstructure wear quickly under sliding contact. Silicon Carbide (22–23 GPa) or Zirconia (10.8–12.3 GPa, plus far higher toughness) hold up where machinable ceramic will not.
Thermal conductivity of 1.46–2 W/(m·K) is close to a polymer, not a ceramic. Where a part has to pull heat away from a die or a power device, Aluminum Nitride reaches 220 W/(m·K) — over 100× higher.
>10¹⁶–10¹⁷ Ω·cm makes this one of the best insulators in the range — and the wrong choice anywhere a wafer or bare die can pick up a static charge. Anti-Static Ceramic is built specifically to bleed that charge away instead of storing it.
Parts We Make in Machinable Ceramic
Machinable ceramic is more often supplied as a custom vacuum-chamber or laboratory component machined to a customer drawing than as one of LONGYI's standard product lines.
From Material to Finished Part
Choosing machinable ceramic is the easy half. Whether it is actually the right process — and which of the three grades — depends on machining, sourcing and the environment the part will see.
Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing
Unlike LONGYI's other nine material families, machinable ceramic is not formed and sintered in-house — it is purchased as fully-fired stock (imported MCREA-01, or genuine Corning MACOR®) and CNC-machined directly to your drawing. That means no shrinkage and no shrink compensation, just precision milling, turning and grinding on finished-density material.
See our manufacturing processAbout LONGYI Precision Technology
We are a Taiwan-based advanced ceramic manufacturer, not a trading house. Forming, sintering, CNC and 5-axis machining, brazing, metallization and final inspection are handled in-house, which is what makes true OEM / ODM work — build to drawing, build to sample — practical at low volume.
About LONGYI Precision TechnologyNeed a Vacuum-Tight Insulator or a Fast Prototype?
Send a drawing, or describe the voltage, vacuum level and process chemistry involved. Our engineers will recommend genuine Corning MACOR®, MCREA-01 or BN-T2300 and quote.
Talk to Our EngineersFrequently Asked Questions
What is Machinable Ceramic (Macor)?
Machinable ceramic is a glass-ceramic material — most widely known by Corning's brand name MACOR® — engineered so it can be milled, turned, drilled and tapped with ordinary carbide tooling instead of diamond grinding. LONGYI Precision Technology supplies it as MCREA-01 (an equivalent glass-ceramic), BN-T2300 (LONGYI's own in-house grade), or genuine Corning MACOR® stock machined to drawing, for applications needing high electrical insulation and zero sintering shrinkage.
Is "technical ceramics" the same as "advanced ceramics"?
Yes. Advanced ceramics, technical ceramics and fine ceramics are three regional names for the same family of engineered ceramic and glass-ceramic materials — North America and Taiwan typically say advanced ceramics, Europe says technical ceramics, and Japan says fine ceramics. Machinable glass-ceramic sits in this same family alongside LONGYI's sintered materials such as Alumina and Silicon Carbide.
Is LONGYI's machinable ceramic genuine Corning MACOR®?
It can be, on request — LONGYI purchases genuine Corning MACOR® stock and CNC-machines it to your drawing when a specification calls for the Corning name directly. For designs without that requirement, MCREA-01 is a machinable glass-ceramic equivalent that matches or exceeds Corning MACOR®'s published properties in most categories, and BN-T2300 is LONGYI's own in-house grade. MACOR® is a registered trademark of Corning Incorporated; LONGYI is not affiliated with Corning.
Can machinable ceramic be used with hydrofluoric acid or fluorine plasma?
No. In 5% HF at 95°C for 24 hours, MCREA-01 loses 83 mg/cm² — roughly two orders of magnitude worse than its resistance to HCl, NaOH or Na₂CO₃ under the same conditions. Any process involving HF cleaning or fluorine-based plasma will attack this material; specify Alumina or Silicon Carbide instead.
What's the difference between MCREA-01 and BN-T2300?
Both are machinable glass-ceramics with nearly identical stiffness (65 GPa) and thermal performance, but MCREA-01 carries published vacuum data — 8.8×10⁻⁹ ml/(s·cm²) outgassing and 1×10⁻¹⁰ ml/s helium permeation after a 500°C bake — that BN-T2300 does not, making it the default choice for UHV work. BN-T2300 is LONGYI's own in-house grade with a slightly higher flexural strength (108 vs >91 MPa) and the fastest lead time of the two.
Why does machinable ceramic have no sintering shrinkage, and what does that mean for lead time?
Because it is purchased already fully fired and is cut directly to size with conventional tooling — there is no green body, no sintering step, and therefore no shrinkage to predict or compensate for. That removes weeks from the schedule compared with a sintered ceramic: prototypes and single-piece parts can often be turned around in days, and a design revision does not mean restarting a mould or firing cycle.
What is the maximum operating temperature?
800°C continuous for all three grades; genuine Corning MACOR® is additionally rated to a 1000°C peak with no mechanical load. This is the lowest ceiling of any material LONGYI supplies — for continuous service above 800°C, look at Alumina (1700°C), Boron Nitride (1800–2100°C, inert) or Aluminum Nitride (2200°C) instead.
Explore All LONGYI Ceramic Materials
Ten material families, all manufactured and machined in-house.
Also Known As
machinable glass ceramic, machinable ceramic, Macor-type ceramic, MACOR® (Corning trademark), glass mica ceramic, fluorophlogopite mica glass-ceramic, machinable technical ceramic, machinable advanced ceramic, 可加工陶瓷, 可切削陶瓷, 微晶玻璃陶瓷, 雲母玻璃陶瓷, MCREA-01, BN-T2300, ceramic machining stock, vacuum insulator ceramic, UHV ceramic, zero-shrinkage ceramic, prototype ceramic, no-fire ceramic
MACOR® is a registered trademark of Corning Incorporated. LONGYI Precision Technology is not affiliated with or endorsed by Corning.
Machinable Ceramic (MAC) — Precision-Machined Parts
A sample of the plate, ring, rod and bracket geometries LONGYI cuts from machinable ceramic (MAC) stock — click to enlarge.
Machinable Ceramic (MAC) — Mixed Geometries
Flat plates, rings, rod stock and brackets cut from the same fully-fired MAC stock — because there's no sintering shrinkage to compensate for, mixed geometries like these come off the same material lot without separate tooling for each shape.