Kyocera Fineceramics Europe is expanding manufacturing capacity across three German sites, with an €8 million cold isostatic press at Selb providing the largest change in production capability. The machine is the biggest single investment in the history of the Selb operation and increases the dimensions of high performance ceramic components the factory can form before machining and thermal processing.
The press has been installed in a purpose-built hall whose construction began in 2023 and weighs about 290 tonnes, with external dimensions of roughly seven metres by four metres by eight metres. Its effective working volume is 1.6 metres in diameter and 2.5 metres high, while a maximum operating pressure of 2,000 bar allows Kyocera to compact substantially larger ceramic bodies than the site could previously handle.
Cold isostatic pressing applies pressure uniformly around a ceramic powder or prepared body rather than compressing material between two rigid dies, improving density consistency before later stages such as sintering, infiltration and precision machining. Differences introduced during forming become increasingly difficult to control as components grow larger because local density variation can produce distortion, cracking or inconsistent material properties once the part is exposed to the high temperatures required for final processing.
Kyocera intends to use the new equipment particularly for silicon-infiltrated silicon carbide, or SiSiC, while the press can also process materials including sintered silicon carbide. The combination of stiffness, wear resistance, thermal stability and chemical resistance offered by those ceramics makes them useful in equipment where metals or polymers cannot maintain the required dimensions or surface condition over long operating periods.
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment is one target because ceramic parts used inside or around process chambers can be exposed to plasma, heat, aggressive chemicals and strict contamination limits. As wafer-processing machinery increases in scale and process control becomes tighter, larger ceramic components have to retain dimensional accuracy across greater spans, placing additional pressure on forming, machining and inspection equipment upstream.
The Selb programme forms one part of a wider German manufacturing investment rather than standing alone. Kyocera says more than €30 million has been invested at Mannheim since 2024 in additional production capacity and a new administration, manufacturing and logistics building, while the site also serves as the European headquarters of its Fineceramics Division and supplies components into semiconductor, energy, medical and other industrial markets.
Waiblingen adds a third production route through the newly established Kyocera Fineceramics Medical business, where the first construction phase represents around €30 million and includes a highly automated plant for BIOCERAM AZUL ceramic ball heads used in orthopaedic implants. Medical ceramics operate at a very different scale from large SiSiC equipment parts, yet both businesses rely on controlled raw materials, repeatable geometry, traceable processes and inspection capable of finding defects before components enter demanding applications.
The three disclosed programmes represent more than €68 million of investment, although they are at different stages and serve distinct markets. Selb gains a larger forming envelope for industrial components, Mannheim adds broader production and logistics capacity, and Waiblingen introduces a dedicated automated medical ceramics operation, spreading capital across several process constraints rather than concentrating spending on one factory.
Advanced ceramics manufacturing is often limited by specialist equipment well before demand reaches the final customer. Large presses, furnaces, infiltration systems, grinders and metrology equipment carry long procurement and qualification cycles, so suppliers have to create capability in advance of full production programmes if they expect to serve semiconductor equipment, medical or energy customers when volumes rise.
SiSiC illustrates the balance between technical advantage and difficult manufacture. Its low mass, stiffness and resistance to thermal and chemical stress can justify use in equipment where movement, contamination or wear would compromise an expensive surrounding process, although those same applications offer little tolerance for internal defects or dimensional error. Increasing component size therefore magnifies the consequences of inconsistent forming rather than simply requiring a larger machine.
Kyocera’s new press removes one of those dimensional restrictions at Selb and gives the company a larger starting body from which complex parts can be produced. Customer specifications, machining time, furnace capacity and inspection will still determine how much useful output the factory can achieve, but the €8 million system extends the range of projects the site can accept without relying on a fundamentally different production route.
The investment was announced on 30 September and remains a labelled fallback item within this daily run, rather than being represented as a 1 October development. Its industrial significance comes from the manufacturing capability being added across three active German sites, with Selb’s new press providing the clearest technical change and future order volumes determining how quickly that additional capacity moves into repeat production.
