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UBE to expand silicon nitride plant

| By Mary Bailey

UBE Corp. (Tokyo) announced plans to expand the silicon nitride production facility at its Ube Chemical Factory to meet rapidly growing demand mainly for bearings and substrates for electric vehicles (xEVs). The facility is scheduled to go online in the second half of fiscal 2025. The production capacity will be about 1.5 times from the current level.

UBE’s silicon nitride powder is the high-quality ceramic material which is made by the original Imide-decomposition process. This process, our proprietary process, has superiority in particle design with purity, morphology, crystal phase, grain size, its distribution and other important properties which can control the microstructure, and consequently it enhances thermomechanical properties required for final products such as strength, fracture toughness, hardness, thermal shock fracture resistance, thermal conductivity, etc. Since 1986, its going on the market, UBE’s silicon nitride powder has been used for various final applications in a wide range of industries such as automobile, aerospace, electronics, machine tools and others, and recognized as a global standard by ceramic manufacturers all over the world.