Kovar

An alloy engineered to expand at nearly the same rate as glass and ceramic, enabling reliable glass-to-metal seals.

Example: machined Kovar

What is it?

An alloy engineered to expand at nearly the same rate as glass and ceramic, so metal and glass can be bonded without cracking as temperature changes.

Key behavior

Matched thermal expansion to hard glass and ceramics — its entire purpose is enabling a reliable glass-to-metal seal.

Why choose it

Only where a hermetic glass-to-metal or ceramic-to-metal seal is actually needed — a narrow, specific use case.

Applications

Hermetic seals, vacuum tube components, electronic package lids, microwave equipment housings.

Machining notes

Requires sharp carbide tooling and consistent coolant flow — similar machining character to other nickel-based alloys. Seal pins and glass-to-metal feedthrough bodies in Kovar are normally CNC turned, with seal faces finished by precision grinding. Kovar’s low expansion and its glass-sealing behaviour are also why it appears in semiconductor equipment components and in vacuum and electronic hardware more generally.

Properties

Density8.3-8.4 g/cm3
Typical HardnessRockwell B78-B82
Typical Strength50,000-60,000 PSI yield
Lead TimeConfirmed per RFQ
FinishingConfirmed per RFQ
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