• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.61-69
• /
• 2001

Spark-Plasma Sintering(SPS) is one of the new sintering methods which takes advantages both inconventional pressure sintering and electric current sintering. It is known that SPS is very effective for the densification of hard-to-sinter materials like refractory metals, intermetallic compounds, glass and ceramics without grain growth. However, a clear explanation for sintering mechanism and an experimental evidence for the formation of weak plasma during SPS are not given yet. In this study, fundamental study on sintering behavior and mechanism of SPS was investiged. For this study, various spherical Fe powders were prepared such as as-received, as-reduced, and as-oxidized and then sintered by SPS facility. In order to confirm the surface cleaning effect during SPS neck region and fracture surface of sintered body was observed and analyzed by SEM/EPMA. Densification behavior was analyzed from the data of deflection along the pressure axis. Some specimens were additionally produced by Hot Pressing and the results were compared with those of SPS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
• /
• 2006.09b
• /
• pp.894-895
• /
• 2006

WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC nanocrystalline powders were sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot press sintering (HPS), and the microstructure and properties were compared. Results show that dense WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC can be obtained by SPS in several minutes when the sintering temperature is $>1200^{\circ}C$. Sintered at a temperature of $1300^{\circ}C$ the sample prepared by SPS for 3 minutes has higher density, finer grains and better properties than that prepared by HPS for 60 minutes. SPS can be used to prepare nanocrystalline WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC with improved properties when suitable sintering parametesr are chosen.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 2003

Anisotropic Sr-ferrites were prepared by the spark plasma sintering process (SPS). The Ferrite particles were oriented and densified during sintering process, and the anisotropic ferrites were manufactured at low sintering temperature and a remarkable short time processing by SPS method. It was showed that the anisotropy of ferrite particles at the specimen outer side was more higher than that at the specimen center, and it seems possible that the orientation of ferrite particles was related to DC current. Magnetic and physical properties of sintered Sr-ferrites are Br = 3.15 kG, iHc : 2.67 kOe, and density : 5.033 g/cm$^3$ when the samples were sintered for 8 minutes at 106$0^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.14 no.1 s.60
• /
• pp.32-37
• /
• 2007

Using spark plasma sintering process (SPS), Ti-6Al-4V alloy powders were successfully consolidated without any contamination happened due to reaction between the alloy powders and graphite mold. Variation of microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated as a function of SPS temperature and time. Compared with hot isostatic pressing (HIP), the sintering time and temperature could be lowered to be 10 min. and $900^{\circ}C$, respectively. At the SPS condition, UTS and elongation were about 890 MPa and 24%, respectively. Considering the density of 98.5% and elongation of 24%, further improving the tensile strength would obtain by increasing the SPS pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
• /
• 2000.04a
• /
• pp.11-11
• /
• 2000

Large-size ceramic/metal bulk FGMs have been fabricated on a recently developed and the world's largest Spark Plasma Sintering(SPS) systems, As a part of the development program for practical production processes and machines for FGMs by SPS, the processes, mechanical properties, dimensional size and shape effects, and production machine systems were investigated. In the past, $ZrO_{2}$/TiAI, $ZrO_{2}$/Ni, $Al_{2}O_{3}$/Ti, WC/Co, WC/Co/Steel, A1/P, Polymide, Cu/Polymide, nano-composites, porous and other combinations of bulk FGMs have already been processed using SPS. However, most of the specimen sizes were small, in a range of 20 to 30mm in diameter. Recently disk-shape sintered compacts with diameters of 100 and 150 mm, and thickness of approximately 15 and 17 mm, $ZrO_{2}$(3Y)/ stainless steel FGMs were homogenous consolidated in a shorter sintering time, while maintaining high quality and repeatability by utilizing a temperature gradient sintering method. The SPS heating up and holding time totaled less than one hour. Therefore, the SPS process in expected to find increased use in the fabrication of large-size FGMs as a new industrial processing technology. This paper introduces SPS systems, the processing principles, features and the characteristies of ceramic/metal bulk FGM.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.17-22
• /
• 2004

In the present study, newly developed spark plasma sintering(SPS) technique was introduced to refine the grain size of ${\gamma}$-based TiAl intermetallic compounds. Ti-46Al-1.5Mo and Ti-46Al-1.5Mo-0.2C(at%) prealloyed powders were produced by mechanical milling(MM) in high-energy attritor. The mechanically milled powders were characterized by XRD and SEM for the microstructural evolution as a function of milling time. And then, the MMed powders were sintered by both spark plasma sintering and hot pressing in vacuum (HP). After the sintering process, MM-SPSed specimens were heat-treated in a vacuum furnace (SPS-VHT) and in the SPS equipment(MM-SPS) for microstructural control. It was found from microstrutural observation that the microstructure consisting of equiaxed ${\gamma}$-TiAl with a few hundred nanometer in average size and ${\alpha}_2-Ti_3Al$ particles were formed after both sintering processes. It was also revealed from hardness test and three-point bending test that the effect of grain refinement on the hardness and bending strength is much higher than that of carbon addition. The fully lamellar microstructures, which is less than $80{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by SPS-VHT process, and the fully lamellar microstructure which is less than $100{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by MM-SPS for a relatively shorter heat-treatment time.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.341-345
• /
• 2006

[ $Ni_2Si$ ] mixed powders were mechanically alloyed by a ball mill and then processed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). In the powder that was mechanically alloyed for 15minutes(MA 15 min), only Ni and Si were observed but in the powder that was mechanically alloyed for 30minutes(MA 30 min), $Ni_2Si$, Ni and Si were mixed together. Some of the MA 15 min powder and MA 30 min powder were processed by HIP under pressure of 150MPa at the temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$ for two hours and some of them were processed by SPS under pressure of 60 MPa at the temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$ for 60 seconds. Both methods completely compounded the powders to $Ni_2Si$. The maximum density of sintered lumps by HIP method was 99.5% and the maximum density of the sintered lump by SPS method was 99.3%. with the hardness of HRc 66 with the hardness of HRc 63. Therefore, the SPS method that can sinter in short time at low cost is considered to be more economical that the HIP method that requires complicated sintering conditions and high cost and the sintering can produce target materials in desired sizes and shapes to be used for thin film.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.494-498
• /
• 2010

The p-type thermoelectric compounds of $Bi_2Te_3$ based doped with 3wt% Te were fabricated by a combination of rapid solidification and spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The effect of holding time during spark plasma sintering (SPS) on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties were investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermoelectric properties. The powders as solidified consisted of homogeneous thermoelectric phases. The thermoelectric figure of merit measured to be maximum ($3.41{\times}10^{-3}/K$) at the SPS temperature of $430^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.152-158
• /
• 2000

The crystallographic grain orientation of {{{{ { ZrB}_{2 } }}}}-ZrC composite sintered by pressureless a sintering(PLS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) was analysed by the SEM-EBSP technique. In the case of PLS, (160) plane of {{{{ { ZrB}_{2 } }}}} was oriented to ND direction, (101) and (111) plane of ZrC were oriented to ND direction. In the case of SPS, (0001) plane of {{{{ { ZrB}_{2 } }}}} was strongly oriented to ND direction. Only (001) plane of ZrC was oriented to ND direction. The PLS specimen had weakly oriented grain structure and interface between {{{{ { ZrB}_{2 } }}}} and ZrC was found to be more stable than that of SPS but the SPS specimen had a preferentially oriented grain structure.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.168-171
• /
• 2003

Interpenetrating phase composites of $TiB_2$-Cu system were produced via Spark-Plasma Sintering (SPS) oi nanocomposite powders. Under simultaneous action of pressure, temperature and electric current titanium diboride nanoparticles distributed in copper matrix move, agglomerate and form a fine-grained skeleton. Increasing SPS-temperature and he]ding time promote densification due to local melting of copper matrix When copper melting is avoided the compacts contain 17-20% porosity but titanium diboride skeleton is still formed representing the feature of SPS . High degree of densification and formation of titanium diboride network result in increased hardness of high-temperature SPS-compacts.