Abstract
A technique for precise control of shrinking rate up to high densities during sintering has been developed using a specially designed dilatometer. The detected shrinkage was periodically fed into a microcomputer system to calculate heating rate as a control parameter by a function optimized for densification behavior. By improving the accuracy of shrinkage measurement and optimizing the control function, the shrinking rate could be controlled within the accuracy of ±3% up to high densities above 95%. It was possible to reduce the grain size of sintered bodies remarkably by this precise control. This technique also contains the multi-step and functional controls of shrinking rate according to preset profiles as a function of time or shrinkage, where the accuracy was ±5% to the density more than 96%.
