The perfect link between ceramic and metal

 When a technician chooses a porcelain, it is a decision that is not taken lightly. Many years are spent learning the delicate idiosyncrasies of the ceramic as that same material in different hands produces widely varying results. Much less investigation is spent when choosing an alloy to go with the porcelain. When firing porcelain onto an alloy, the coefficients of thermal expansion should match each other or be within a range specified by the porcelain manufacturer. This limits the technician as to what alloys they can use with the porcelain of their choice. Some porcelains are particularly problematic as to what alloy they will accept and this causes a lot of stress for the technician.