Forming of micro-components by electrical-field activated sintering

• Main Authors: Zhao Jie, Qin Yi, Huang Kunlan, Zulkipli Muhammad Bin, Hijji Hasan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2015-01-01
• Series: MATEC Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20152110001

Recent research work has been undertaken to investigate the feasibility of forming micro-components by combining Electrical-field activated sintering and micro-forming (Micro-FAST). This paper firstly introduces the Micro-Fast technology and experimental validation method employed. Cylindrical components were used for the experiments and the sintering and forming was realised by use of a Gleeble 3800 thermal-mechanical simulator. Thirteen different types of powders (metallic and ceramic) with variable particle sizes have been formed successfully. The influential parameters, such as pressure, temperature and heating rate, were studied. From the experiment results it is shown that the component quality depends significantly on the pressure, the heating rate and maximum temperature applied. Compared to other sintering technologies, the relatively short forming-cycle time of Micro-Fast (increased heating rate and reduced holding time) makes a good contribution to highly efficient particulate sintering for micro-manufacturing.