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Grade 350 Maraging Steel vs. Optical Silicon

Grade 350 maraging steel and optical silicon belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Grade 350 maraging steel is a metal, while optical silicon is a ceramic material. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 14 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (21, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.

For each property being compared, the top bar is grade 350 maraging steel and the bottom bar is optical silicon.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 750 to 2400
120
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 190
150
Poisson's Ratio 0.3
0.28
Shear Modulus, GPa 75
80
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 1140 to 2420
110

Thermal Properties

Melting Onset (Solidus), °C 1420
1560
Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 450
700
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 12
3.0

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 8.2
2.3

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 13
35
Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points 23
75
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 38 to 82
13
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 29 to 49
22
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 35 to 74
18