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treatment of a
The thermal
powder or compact at a
temperature below the melting point of the main constituent,
for the purpose of increasing its strength by bonding together
of the particles
Sintering Atmospheres
Advantages of Powder
Technology
Types of Sintering
1. Solid state sintering
Only solid phases are present at
the sinter temperature
2. Liquid phase sintering
Small amounts of liquid phase are
present during sintering
3. Reactive sintering
Particles react with each other to
new product phases
Important Parameters in
Sintering
We can divide these parameters into
four broad categories
Powder preparation:
-- Particle size
-- Shape
-- Size distribution
Stages of Sintering
Three stages are distinguished in
sintering
First Stage
After burn out of any organic
additives, two things happen to
the powder particles when the
mobility of the surface atoms
has become high enough;
initially rough surface of the
Stages of Sintering
Second Stage
Densification and pore shrinkage. If
grain boundaries are formed after the
first stage, these are new source of
atoms for filling up the concave areas
which diminishes the outer surface of
the particle
Third Stage
Grain growth takes place, the pores
break up and form closed spherical
Stages of Sintering
The three stages in the dry sintering can be
shown as
Sintering
Mechanism:
Sintering
occurs by diffusion of atoms through the microstructure. This
diffusion is caused by a gradient of chemical potential atoms move from an
area of higher chemical potential to an area of lower chemical potential. The
different paths the atoms take to get from one spot to another are the
sintering mechanisms. The six common mechanisms are:
Surface diffusion Diffusion of atoms along the surface of a particle
Vapor transport Evaporation of atoms which condense on a different surface
Lattice diffusion from surface atoms from surface diffuse through lattice
Grain boundary diffusion atoms diffuse along grain boundary
Plastic deformation dislocation motion causes flow of matter
Lattice diffusion from grain boundary atom from grain boundary diffuses
through lattice
Mechanisms of Sintering
Liquid
respective surfaces
sl
sl
sv
lv
Grain boundary
wetting during LPS
occurs when A
and B approach
zero
AB BL cos(B ) AL cos(A)
Grain B
BL
AB
Grain A
Liquid
AL
Examples of LPS
Powder Metallurgy parts
-- Copper/Tin alloys
-- Iron/Copper structural parts
--Tungsten Carbide/Cobalt cemented
carbides
Ceramics
-- Silicon Nitride with a glassy liquid phase
(2wt% alumina + 6wt% yttria)
-- SiC with Silicon liquid phase
Disadvantages of LPS
Compact slumping (shape distortion)
which occurs when too much liquid is
formed during sintering
The same parameters which control
the sintered microstructure often
control the final properties
Useful application temperature of the
material is sometimes limited by the
presence of too much low melting
point material
Reactive Sintering
Two or more constituents in a compact
react during sintering to form a new phase
or phases
The reaction is normally exothermic and
can contribute to an enhancement of
sintering
In some cases the reaction is so
exothermic that it can generate sufficient
heat to cause self-sintering without
external heating except that required for
initiating the reaction
Reactive Sintering
This is the basis of combustion
synthesis which if properly
controlled can produce a relatively
dense compact of the synthesized
reaction product
Example of reaction sintering is
3TiO2 + 4AlN 2Al2O3 + 2TiN + N2
Sintering Procedure
Ancient sintering techniques for the
making of pottery and ceramic art
objects remain in wide use to this
day but research has also led to
more advanced techniques which
work for a wider array of ceramics
Sintering Procedure
In a typical sintering procedure
-- Most ceramic materials have a
lower
affinity for water and a lower
plasticity index than clay,
requiring
organic additives in
the stages before
sintering
-- A mixture of binder, water and
ceramic powder is pressed into a
mold to form a green body (unsintered
item)
Sintering Procedure
-- The green compact is placed on a
mesh belt and moved slowly
through
the sintering furnace
-- In the preheat zone, the lubricant
volatilizes, leaves the part as a
vapor,
and is carried away by the
dynamic
atmosphere flow
Sintering Procedure
-- The temperature within the
furnace
rises slowly in the
preheat zone until
reaching the
actual sintering
temperature
-- It remains essentially constant
during
the time at that
temperature, and
proceeds
into the cooling zone where
the
drop in part temperature is
Sintering Procedure
Schematica
lly
Sintering Procedure
As the parts travel through the
furnace, the temperature cycle
results in changes in composition
and microstructure
In the hot zone metallurgical
bonds develop between particles
and solid state alloying takes
place
The microstructure developed
during sintering determines the
Sintering Atmospheres
The operation is almost invariably
carried out under a protective
atmosphere, because of the large
surface areas involved, and at
temperatures between 60 and
90% of the melting-point
These are essential for almost all
sintering processes, to prevent
oxidation and to promote the
Sintering Atmospheres
In practice dry hydrogen, cracked
ammonia, and partially combusted
hydrocarbons are mainly used
Although the first named is often
precluded because of cost. It is
however, used for sintering
carbides and magnetic materials
of the Alnico type
Sintering Atmospheres
It can replace pure hydrogen for
many applications at approximately
one-third the cost, with the obvious
exceptions where reaction with
nitrogen cannot be tolerated
It is particularly useful for sintering
iron, steel, stainless steel, and
copper-base components
Sintering Atmospheres
1)Re-Pressing
Even with the best control that is
feasible in practice, there will
inevitably be some variation in the
dimensions of parts produced
from a given material in a given
die set
2) Hot Re-Press
Hot Repressing will give even
greater densification, with
consequent greater improvement
in the mechanical properties, but
less accurate control of the final
dimensions is to be expected
6) Impregnation
This term is used for a process
analogous to infiltration except
that the pores are filled with an
organic as opposed to a metallic
material
8)
Surface-Hardening
Steam Treatment
11) Plating
Sintered parts may be plated in
much the same way as wrought or
cast metals, and copper, nickel,
cadmium, zinc, and chromium
plating are all used
12) Coatings
A large percentage of hard metal
cutting tool inserts are now coated
using chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) or physical vapor deposition
(PVD)
Advantages of Sintering
Particular advantages of this
powder technology include:
1. the possibility of very high purity
for the starting materials and their
great uniformity
2. preservation of purity due to the
restricted nature of subsequent
fabrication steps
Advantages of Sintering
3. stabilization of the details of
repetitive operations by control of
grain size in the input stages
4. absence of stringering of
segregated particles and
inclusions (as often occurs in melt
processes)
5. no requirement for deformation
to produce directional elongation
of grains