Ceramic

Ceramic is a material in the Heavy Gear Universe

Overview

These crystalline materials were originally thought unsuitable for load-bearing functions since they were too fragile and brittle. With the discovery of new manufacturing techniques in the early centuries of the third millennium, ceramics, now stronger, saw use in a variety of items.

Most ceramics have the advantage of being extremely resistant to high temperatures. For this reason, many modern armor materials include layers of ceramic. Some armor types are specifically intermixed with ceramic compounds to be even more resistant to energy-based weapons such as shaped-charge warheads and laser beams.

Ceramics are used in internal combustion engines and other high-heat applications. They also see wide use as shielding and heat sinks for fusion reactors and spaceship hulls, particularly those equipped for atmospheric re-entry. Special ceramic coatings and glazings can also be manufactured to improve the durability of spaceships.

Natural ceramic materials, such as several varieties of rock, are also used extensively on Terra Nova. In the early centuries of colonization, most of the buildings were made out of the local variety of rock — lime stone, granite or quartz — because it was cheap, available in large quantities and easy to work with. With proper care and a thin external polymer coating, rock also proved to be a fairly durable material.