What is the purpose of spark plasma sintering?

<p>What is Spark Plasma Sintering</p>

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Spark Plasma Sintering “SPS” (aka FAST or Field Assisted Sintering Technology) is an advanced technique to take powder and turn it into solid parts similar to additive manufacturing but without having to melt the material. It allows for the rapid application of temperature and pressure via high-density pulsed current within a controlled atmosphere. The unique heating mechanism of using electrical current gives SPS the ability to consolidate materials that traditional processes can’t and at much faster rates. SPS is the ideal consolidation and bonding method for all of your materials including metals, refractory alloys, nanomaterials, ultra-high temp ceramics, and more. In simple terms, SPS can be thought of as a way of making strong and dense materials from powders using high heat and pressure.

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Overall Benefits of SPS

 

1. Shorter Cycle Times - Sintering cycles are minutes vs hours/days for conventional processes. High productivity, extremely rapid material development capabilities.
2. Lower Sintering Temperatures - Sinter materials at lower temperatures compared to conventional sintering processes
3. Extremely Versatile - Densify low melting point metals, ultra-high temperature ceramics, or even bond dissimilar materials requiring nonuniform temperature. No other sintering process can come close. Can sinter porous parts and fully dense parts.
4. High-precision process control - Able to finely control sintering parameters including temperature and pressure to ensure the best outcome for your parts. Unique chemistries are unable to be made with conventional liquid melt processes. Engineered structures within materials preserved that would otherwise be lost in other processes

 

Just a few applications of SPS

• Energy Storage: High-capacity lithium-ion batteries and other advanced energy storage materials
• Biomedical Engineering: Porous ceramics for drug delivery and scaffolds for tissue engineering
• Advanced Ceramics: High-temperature superconductors and high-performance piezoelectric ceramics
• Intermetallics: Advanced alloys with improved mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties
• Composites: Reinforced ceramics and metals with enhanced mechanical properties

 

Diffusion Bonding using SPS

    Not only can SPS densify powder materials but it is also highly effective at bonding both similar and dissimilar materials together. Bonding can be performed with all the materials listed above and more. Options for bonding include:

 

• Bulk solid to bulk solid materials
• Powder to solid
• Bonding thin sheets together
• Functionally graded material bonding (ceramics to metals, polymers to metals, etc.)

Additional resources to learn about SPS/FAST:

Fast-SPS Booklet 2023
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adem.201300409

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/spark-plasma-sintering

https://www.totalmateria.com/page.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&site=kts&NM=460

 

Classification Materials for SPS processing   Metals Virtually any metals possible: Fe, Cu, Al, Au, Ag, Ni, Cr, Mo, Sn, Ti, W, Be   Ceramics Oxides
Carbides
Nitrides
Borides
Flourides Al2O3, Mulite, ZrO2, MgO, SiO2, TiO2, HfO2
SiC, B4C, TaC, TiC, WC, ZrC, VC
Si3N4, TaN, TiN, AiN, ZrN, VN
TiB2, HfB2, LaB6, ZrB2, VB2
LiF, CaF2, MgF2 Cermets Si3N4+Ni, Al2O3+Ni, ZrO2+Ni
Al2O3+TiC, SUS+ZrO2, Al2O3+SUS
SUS+WC/Co, BN+Fe. WC+Co+Fe   Intermetalic compounds TiAl. MoSi2, Si3Zr5,NiAl
NbCo, NbAl, LaBaCuSO4, Sm2Co17   Other materials Organic materials (polyimide, etc.), compositematerials  

Spark plasma sintering (SPS),[1] also known as field assisted sintering technique (FAST)[2] or pulsed electric current sintering (PECS), or plasma pressure compaction (P2C)[3] is a sintering technique.

The main characteristic of SPS is that the pulsed or unpulsed DC or AC current directly passes through the graphite die, as well as the powder compact, in case of conductive samples. Joule heating has been found to play a dominant role in the densification of powder compacts, which results in achieving near theoretical density at lower sintering temperature compared to conventional sintering techniques.[4] The heat generation is internal, in contrast to the conventional hot pressing, where the heat is provided by external heating elements. This facilitates a very high heating or cooling rate (up to 1000 K/min), hence the sintering process generally is very fast (within a few minutes). The general speed of the process ensures it has the potential of densifying powders with nanosize or nanostructure while avoiding coarsening which accompanies standard densification routes. This has made SPS a good method for preparation of a range of materials with enhanced magnetic,[5] magnetoelectric,[6] piezoelectric,[7] thermoelectric,[8] optical[9] or biomedical[10] properties. SPS is also used for sintering of carbon nanotubes[11] for development of field electron emission electrodes. Functioning of SPS systems is schematically explained in a video link.[12] While the term "spark plasma sintering" is commonly used, the term is misleading since neither a spark nor a plasma is present in the process.[13] It has been experimentally verified that densification is facilitated by the use of a current. SPS can be used as a tool for the creation of functionally graded soft-magnetic materials and it is useful in accelerating the development of magnetic materials.[14] It has been found that this process improves the oxidation resistance [15] and wear resistance[16] of sintered tungsten carbide composites compared to conventional consolidation methods.

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A kind of sintering that involves both temperature and pressure

Hybrid heating

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By means of a combination of the FAST/SPS method with one or several additional heating systems acting from the outside of the pressing tool systems it's possible to minimize the thermal gradients thus allowing the enhancement of the heating rates at simultaneously optimized homogeneity.[citation needed]

In 2012 the world's largest hybrid SPS-hot press sintering system was set up in Spain[17] and the fabrication of fully dense large ceramic blanks of up to 400mm with this system is in progress within the frame of the FP7 European Project HYMACER - Hybrid sintering and advanced machining of technical ceramics

Spark plasma sintering, also known as plasma pressure compaction (P2C) sintering, equipment are commercially available now and are no longer limited to laboratory research work. Products like body armor, rocket nozzles, carbon fiber composites and several other hybrid materials can be produced in commercial scale using these equipment.[18]

See also

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• Electric current assisted sintering – Process of forming and bonding material by heat or pressure

References

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