Comparison between Pulse Electric Current Sintering and Hot Pressing of Silicon Nitride Ceramics

Abstract

Samples of a Si₃N₄ mixed powder with oxide sintering additives, Y₂O₃ 5mass% and Al₂O₃ 3mass%, were sintered separately by pulse electric current sintering (PECS) and by hot pressing to discuss the characteristic features of these two processing techniques. The low-temperature consolidation and the plasma effect, which have been reported to be features of the PECS process, could not be confirmed in this study. In the sintering of Si₃N₄ ceramics as a material for electrical insulators, the rapid consolidation, which enables the nanometer-scale grain size to be maintained in the dense material, was shown to be the only advantage of the PECS process.