Abstract
The sintering process of iron powder during flash resistance-sintering was analyzed on the basis of temperature and electric-resistance changes of the compacts. The temperature change for very short time was estimated from the power input value at every moment. The estimated temperature was compared to the compact surface temperature measured by an infrascope, and it was confirmed that the difference between both the temperatures was rather small, and decreased with an increase of set-up current level. From the analysis, it was shown that in the resistance-sintering of metal powder, heat generated at an early stage is mostly due to the contact resistance, between particles, and its fraction decreases as the sintering time proceeds. The rate of decrease depends upon the properties of the metal powder and resistance-sintering conditions.
