Abstract
Specimen temperature and sintering behavior of Ni powder by spark plasma sintering (SPS) were investigated. Microstructure observation of the sintered compact revealed that the fast densification of the powder materials was due to the promotion of neck growth and plastic deformation of powder particles in the initial stage of SPS. With die temperature at 1073 K, the temperature of the specimen center was 1203 K. The temperature difference between specimen and graphite die exponentially increased with the increase of the temperature of the graphite die. When the graphite die was kept warm by a thermal insulation jacket, the temperature difference between specimen and graphite die was smaller than when using a non-insulated die, and the temperature difference lineally increased with the increase of the temperature of the graphite die.
