In the production process of high-aluminum ceramic balls, the sintering link usually has the highest cost. The main reasons are as follows:

1. High equipment investment and maintenance costs: Sintering requires professional equipment such as high-temperature kilns, such as tunnel kilns, shuttle kilns, etc. The purchase cost of these equipment is high, generally ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan. In addition, in order to ensure the temperature uniformity and stability of the kiln, it is necessary to regularly maintain the equipment and replace vulnerable parts such as refractory materials and heating elements, and the maintenance cost is also high.

2. High energy consumption: The sintering temperature of high-aluminum ceramic balls is usually at a high temperature of about 1500℃-1650℃, and the insulation time is 10-15 hours. This process requires a lot of energy, such as natural gas, coal gas or electricity. Taking natural gas as an example, for every ton of high-aluminum ceramic balls produced, thousands of cubic meters of natural gas may be consumed, and the energy cost accounts for a large proportion.

3. High requirements for process control: During the sintering process, slight changes in parameters such as temperature, atmosphere, and insulation time will have a significant impact on the crystal structure, density, strength and other properties of high-aluminum ceramic balls. To ensure product quality, it is necessary to equip a high-precision temperature control system, atmosphere adjustment system and professional technicians for operation and monitoring, which requires high labor and control costs. Once improperly controlled, it may lead to unqualified product performance, waste of raw materials, energy, etc., and increase production costs.

However, in some cases, if the purity of raw materials is extremely high, the cost of raw material preparation may also become the highest part. For example, when special high-purity alumina powder is required, or expensive additives such as rare earth metal oxides are added, the cost of raw materials may exceed the sintering stage.