Examination of Simultaneous Sintering of Multiple Powder Compacts in Electric-Current Sintering

Abstract

The present study deals with the simultaneous sintering of multiple pieces in the electric-current sintering apparatus to examine the mass production of sintered materials. Titanium was selected as the starting powder and the electric-current sintering apparatus equipped with the hot wall (HW) composed of carbon heat insulator and heater was used for the sintering. Sintering was performed at 900°C for 10 min and 45 samples were simultaneously prepared by using maximum 15 graphite dies (30 mmϕ). The high dense sintered materials (>95% T.D.) could be obtained and the deviation of thickness was improved drastically by adopting the prepressing to powder before sintering. However, the large deviation of the density of sintered materials was confirmed in the sintering without HW due to the variety of the sintering temperature of the dies. These results indicate that the simultaneous sintering of multiple pieces in the electric-current sintering apparatus is possible if the uniformization of the sintering temperature by the equipment of HW and prepressing process are properly performed.