CHAPTER 5: Sintering

• process in which an assembly of loose or

compacted particles is metallurgically bonded
into a coherent body at elevated temperatures.
• The driving force for solid state sintering is the
excess surface free energy that accompanies the
reduction in porosity.
• temperature is usually below the melting point
of the major constituent of the powder.
• Heating is carried out in a controlled, inert or
reducing atmosphere, or in a vacuum to prevent
oxidation
• During the process the part shrinks and densify,
without losing its pressed or moulded shape.
• Sintering is a complex process and for any given
metal and set of sintering conditions there are
likely to be different stages, driving forces and
material transport mechanisms associated with
the process.
• it generally involves 6 distinct stages;
– Initial bonding among particles
– Neck growth
– Pore channel closure
– Pore rounding
– Densification or pore shrinkage
– Pore coarsening
• Material transport mechanisms involved include
surface diffusion, volume diffusion, evaporation
and condensation.
• Factors that affect sintering include
– temperature,
– time,
– particle size,
– compact porosity as well as
– pre-alloying.
• Time and temperature however are the most
significant factors.
 5.1 Mechanism of Sintering
• Particles bond with one another due to atomic
diffusion.
• The driving force for sintering is the
minimization of the solid-vapour interface area
and the elimination of pores.
5.1.1 Particle contact and neck formation
• As sintering begins, small necks form and grow
between contacting particles by mass transfer
via atomic diffusion.
• In fine powders the driving force of sintering is
high because of the larger surface area per unit
volume.
• This increases the solid-vapour interfacial
energy.
• However some of this solid-vapour interfacial
energy is used in creating new grain boundaries
at the contact region between particles.
• Thus net energy depends on both surface
energy and grain boundary energies
• During this stage mechanisms A, B and F
dominate.
• Higher temperatures increase rate of neck
growth because the diffusion coefficient, D,
increases exponentially with T according to the
equation
• Where Do is the pre-expontial factor which
depends on atomic movement processes, Q is
the activation enrgy, R is the universal gas
constant and T the absolute temperature.
 5.1.2 Channel closure stage
• The particles become individually in-
distinguishable.
• Densification is more pronounced as the pore
channels in the powder aggregate gradually and
close, thus reducing the pore volume.
• The migration of pore volume becomes possible
and pores continue to form a semi-connected
phase throughout the aggregate.
• The diffusion and mass transfer mechanism
that control this stage is A and E
• The time, t, required to achieve complete
homogenization is inversely proportional to the
diffusion coefficient D:

• Where l is the average diameter of the

dispersed particles and k is a constant
depending on alloy system parameters and alloy
composition.
 5.1.3 Pore isolation
• The pores become isolated and are no longer
interconnected.
• This occurs in the final stages of sintering. Volume
diffusion becomes the dominant mechanism of
transportation.
• Another physical process that occurs in this final
stage is pore coarsening, which increases the mean
pres size while reducing the number of pores (and
percent porosity).
• phenomenon is also called Ostwald ripening: there
is competitive growth of larger pores at the expense
of smaller pores which lose vacancies to the larger
pores and disappear (they get annihilated).
• Generally, fine particles, high sintering
temperatures and long sintering times promote
better homogenization of the composition and
thererefore better quality of product.
 5.2 Activated sintering
• used when rapid part production with low
energy consumption is required, i.e. T and t must
be decreased.
• In this method specific chemicals (activators) are
added to the powder during blending.
• The activator helps to form a low melting
temperature phase which provides a high
difussivity path for rapid sintering and lower
activation energy barrier for diffusion to take
place
• Ideally the activator must have very low
solubility in the main component (base metal)
of the powder in order to minimize
contamination.
• On the other hand the base metal must have
high solubility in the activator in order to lower
the liquidus temperature.
• Example is the use of Ni, Pd or Pt as surface
activators in tungsten powders
 5.3 Liquid Phase Sintering
• occurs in powder with a large range of melting
temperatures of metal components.
• In such systems a liquid may form as a result of
one phase of the system.
• mass transport and sintering kinetics are
improved due if the following conditions are
met;
– The liquid wets the solid phase and uniformly coats
it
– The diffusivity of the solid’s atoms in the liquid is
large
– The solid is soluble in the liquid
• A wetable liquid film enables the surface
tension to draw the powders together, thus
aiding densification and pore elimination.
• The liquid film also lubricates the solid’s surface
and facilitates particle rearrangement.
• These changes contribute to rapid decrease in
the compact volume.
• LPS is observed in many metallurgical binary
and ternary systems such as the Cu-Co, W-Cu,
W-Ni-Fe, W-Ag, Cu-Sn, Fe-Cu and Co-Mo-Fe
alloys.
 Disadvantages of LPS

• Swelling may occur because the melt

penetrates the boundaries in solid phase and
the solid disintegrates into smaller particle
and separate.
• This reduces the part density.
• Swelling can be controlled by selecting fine
powders, low compacting pressures and slow
heating rates.
 5.4 Sintering Procedure
• For production purposes sintering is carried out
in continuous furnaces that comprise of 4
zones
 Zone 1: Lubricants burning off (or
delubing zone)
• The pressed parts are slightly heated to burn
and sweep out lubricant.
• The fumes from this zone are subsequently
vented off.
• atmosphere is slightly oxidizing and this helps
to convey heat quickly and uniformly.
• For steels the temperature range is 425-700oC
 Zone 2 Sintering
• The parts are heated to sintering temperature
(700-1120oC for steels).
• Neck formation and channel closure occur in
this range.
• The atmosphere in this zone must be neutral or
reducing.
• For better sintering oxidation must be avoided.
• Oxide layers on in coming particles have the
following effects
– Prevent wetting of the particle surfaces and this
effectively reduces mass transfer by diffusion
 – Reduces the bonding strength between individual
particles
– Prevents pore rounding and this affects structural
integrity and toughness of the resultant part
• Zone 3: Recarbonisation (for steels)
• During slow cooling to 850oC in endorthemic
and neutral or reducing atmosphere, carbon is
restored to the surface of the part. The cooling
rate is also controlled
 Zone 4: Cooling
• Thepurpose of this zone is to cool down the
part (from 850oC) to ambient temperature.
• The process should however prevent oxidation
of the material and hence the atmosphere is
slightly reducing, neutral or slightly oxidizing.

• Once the part gets to room temperature

sintering is finished and the next step involves
finishing processes prior to selling
 5.5 Characteristics of Sintered product
• Just like with compacting, the properties of a
sintered component can be aasessed by carrying
out some tests on it. These include;
• Shrinkage (or Growth) = (Change in length/
original length) x 100
• Sintered density – determined in the same way
as for Green Density of compacted products. %
porosity (P)

• Where Dt is true density and Ds is sinter density

• Transverse rupture strength, determined in the
same way as for green compact.
• Radial crushing strength (W)
where K = Strength constant – dependent upon
density & composition; L = length; T =
thickness; D = Outside dia.
• Microstructure analysis under microscope – to
determine amount, size & distribution of
porosity, homogeneity, distribution of phases,
grain size, presence of oxides & other inclusions