SINTERING

Introduction:

The word "sinter" comes from the German Sinter, a cognate of English “cinder”,
which according to Concise Dictionary means, “the refuse of burned coals”.
In plain English “solid piece of matter remaining after having been subjected to
combustion”.
Sintering is therefore defined as the thermal treatment of a powder or compact at
a temperature below the melting point of the main constituent, for the purpose of
increasing its strength by bonding together of the particles.
In other words the bonding of powders by solid-state diffusion, resulting in the
absence of a separate bonding phase.
Or
Sintering is a method for making objects from powder; by heating the material
(below its melting point) until its particles adhere to each other
Sintering is traditionally used for manufacturing ceramic objects, and has also
found uses in such fields as powder metallurgy
Almost all ceramic bodies must be sintered to produce a microstructure with the
required properties. The widespread use of the sintering process has led to a
variety of approaches to the subject
In ceramics as well as in metals, we are concerned with two types of structure,
both of which have a profound effect on properties

 The first type of structure is at the atomic scale: the type of bonding and the
crystal structure (for a crystalline material) or the amorphous structure (if it is
glassy)
 The second type of structure is at larger scale: the microstructure, which refers to
the nature, quantity, and distribution of the structural elements or phases in the
ceramics (e.g., crystals, glass and porosity)
 Sintering may be considered the process by which an assembly of particles,
compacted under pressure or simply confined in a container, chemically bond
themselves into a coherent body under the influence of an elevated temperature.
The temperature is usually below the melting point of the major constituent.
Much of the difficulty in defining and analyzing sintering is based on the many
changes within the material that may take place simultaneouslyor consecutively.
Densification or shrinkage of the sintered part is very often associated with all types
of sintering. However, sintering can take place without any shrinkage; expansion or
no net dimensional change is quite possible. From the tooling point of view it is
preferred to avoid very large amount of dimensional changes. The driving force for
solid state sintering is the excess surface free energy. 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.
What Happens During Sintering?

 In the pressing operation the powder particles are brought together and
deformed at the points of contact
 At elevated temperature - the sintering temperature - the atoms can move more
easily and quickly migrate along the particle surfaces (the technical term is
Diffusion)
Metals consist of crystallites
 At the sintering temperature new crystallites form at the points of contact so that
the original inter-particle boundaries disappear, or become recognizable merely
as grain boundaries (This process is called Recrystallisation)
 The total internal surface area of the pressed body is reduced by sintering
 Neck-like junctions are formed between adjacent particles as can be seen on the
adjoining scanning electron micrograph
Driving Force for Sintering:

As with all processes, sintering is accompanied by an increase in the free energy

of the system. The sources that give rise to the amount of free energy are commonly
referred to as the driving forces for sintering. The main possible driving forces are
 The curvature of the particle surfaces
 An externally applied pressure
 A chemical reaction

Schematically it can be shown as

Stages of Sintering:
Three stages are distinguished in sintering
 First Stage
After burn out of any organic additives, two things happen to the powder particles
when the mobility of the surface atoms has become high enough; initially rough
surface of the particles is smoothed and neck formation occurs
 Second Stage
Densification and pore shrinkage. If grain boundaries are formed after the first
stage, these are new source of atoms for filling up the concave areas which
diminishes the outer surface of the particle
 Third Stage
Grain growth takes place, the pores break up and form closed spherical bubbles
The three stages in the dry sintering can be shown as
Mechanisms of Sintering:
Six distinct mechanisms can contribute to the sintering of a consolidated mass of
crystalline particles
1. Surface diffusion
2. Lattice diffusion from the surface
3. Vapor transport
4. Grain boundary diffusion
5. Lattice diffusion from the grain boundary
6. Plastic flow
Sintering Procedure:

Ancient sintering techniques for the making of pottery and ceramic art objects
remain in wide use to this day but research has also led to more advanced
techniques which work for a wider array of ceramics and powder mettalurgy
In a typical sintering procedure
-- Most ceramic materials and metal powders have a lower affinity for water and a
lower plasticity index than clay, requiring organic additives in the stages before
sintering
-- A mixture of binder, water and mettalic powder is pressed into a mold to form a
green body (un sintered item)
-- The green compact is placed on a mesh belt and moved slowly through the
sintering furnace
-- In the preheat zone, the lubricant volatilizes, leaves the part as a vapor, and is
carried away by the dynamic atmosphere flow
-- The temperature within the furnace rises slowly in the preheat zone until reaching
the actual sintering temperature
-- It remains essentially constant during the time at that temperature, and
proceeds into the cooling zone where the drop in part temperature is
controlled.

Schematically:

 As the parts travel through the furnace, the temperature cycle results in changes
in composition and microstructure
 In the hot zone metallurgical bonds develop between particles and solid state
alloying takes place
 The microstructure developed during sintering determines the properties of the
part

Sintering Atmospheres:

 The operation is almost invariably carried out under a protective atmosphere,

because of the large surface areas involved, and at temperatures between 60
and 90% of the melting-point
  These are essential for almost all sintering processes, to prevent oxidation and to
promote the reduction of surface oxides
 In practice dry hydrogen, cracked ammonia, and partially combusted
hydrocarbons are mainly used
 Although the first named is often precluded because of cost. It is however, used
for sintering carbides and magnetic materials of the Alnico type
 It can replace pure hydrogen for many applications at approximately one-third the
cost, with the obvious exceptions where reaction with nitrogen cannot be
tolerated
 It is particularly useful for sintering iron, steel, stainless steel, and copper-base
components
 The most widely used atmospheres primarily because of their lower cost, are
produced by partial combustion of hydro-carbons

Types of Sintering:

1. Solid state sintering:

Only solid phases are present at the sinter temperature

Powders compacted using the various techniques are fired
( a l s o t e r m e d d e n s i f i e d o r s i n t e r e d ) a t a t e m p e r a t u r e s u ff i c i e n t t o
d e v e l o p t h e m i c r o s t r u c t u r e enough to confer useful properties on the
component. Sintering can be defined asremoval of the pores between starting
particles accompanied by shrinkage of the component combined with growth
together and formation of strong bonds betweenadjacent particles. All of the steps
on going from a green powder compact to amicrostructure made up of
bonded grains are included in the term sintering. Thedriving force for
sintering is the reduction of surface area (and surface energy) o b t a i n e d b y
replacing a loose powder having many high energy solid
v a p o r surfaces (γsv) w i t h a b o n d e d s o l i d h a v i n g f e w e r l o w e r e n e r g y
s o l i d - s o l i d g r a i n boundaries (γo). This explains the desire on the part of
many engineering ceramicmanufacturers for very fine starting powders since
the higher the surface area of the powder the greater the driving force for
densification so that higher densitiescan be achieved or lower firing temperatures
used.The shrinkage upon sintering a ceramic component can be monitored
bymeasuring 9emper size or density as a function of firing 9emperatura and time.

(a) Stages of SSS

Three stages of SSS are recognized although there is not a clear distinction between
them and they overlap to a certain extent.
Initial sintering

It involves rearrangement of the powder particles andformation of a strong bond or neck

(Figure b) at the contact points between particles. Relative density of the compact may
increase from 0.5 to0.6 due mostly to the increased packing of the particles.
Intermediate sintering:

This stage is where the size of the necks grow, the amount of porositydecreases
substantially and particles move closer (Figure (c)) leading to shrinkageof the
component. Grain boundaries (and grains) are formed and move so thatsome grains
grow at the expense of others. This stage continues while the porechannels are
connected (open porosity) but is considered over when the pores areisolated (closed
porosity). The majority of the shrinkage of the ceramic componentoccurs during
intermediate sintering and relative density at the end of this stagemay be about 0.9.
Final stage sintering:

In final stage sintering the pores become closed and are slowly eliminatedgenerally by
diffusion of vacancies from the pores along grain boundaries withonly a Little
densification of the component. The grain boundaries are regions of more open crystal
structure than the grains themselves so that diffusion along themis more rapid. Grain
size increases during this stage (Figure (d))
Microstructural evolution during sintering is usually followed by firing samplesfor
various times at temperature, cooling to room temperature, polishing andetching and
examining in the SEM or optical microscope. For the initial stage of sintering where
samples are porous and weak polishing is difficult.
Figure : Development of the ceramic microstructure duringsintering: (a) loose powder particles,
(b) initial stage, (c)intermediate stage and (d) final stage.

2. Liquid phase sintering

It involves all three components but is concentrated at the solid apex since most
material is solid (<20% liquid).
Liquid phase sintering method is getting more and more common, in which the
presence of liquid phase during all or part of the sintering cycle of material is used
for enhanced densification.
 During liquid phase sintering a liquid phase coexists with a particulate solid at the
sintering temperature
 The wetting liquid provides a capillary force that pulls the solid particles together
and induces particle re-arrangement
 A larger amount of sintering aid is made (3-30vol %)
 The second phase chosen has lower melting temperature than the main
constituent
 The sintering temperature is set just above the melting point of the added phase
so that during sintering it forms a liquid phase that wets the solid particles
 The pores in the compact are largely surrounded by the liquid phase and the
driving force for sintering is liquid surface energy
 With high liquid fractions, full density can be achieved almost entirely by
rearrangement
 Grain boundary ‘wetting’ breaks the polycrystalline particle into single crystal
particles in the initial stages of liquid phase sintering. These single crystal
particles then spheroidize and coarsen.

There are two variations of the process:

(a) normal liquid phase sintering for which the formation of the liquid phase is
associated with one or more components contained in the original green
compact.
(b) infiltration of the original green compact with a liquid formed outside the compact
during the very early period of sintering. Although simultaneous infiltration and
sintering appears to be dominant, infiltration of a previously sintered part is also
practised.
During liquid phase sintering three stages ‘rearrangement’ or ‘liquid flow’,
‘accommodation’ or ‘dissolution and reprecipitation and ‘coalescence’ or ‘solid phase
sintering’ take place. These stages follow in the approximate order of their
occurrence, but there may be significant overlapping for any specific system.
With progress in liquid phase sintering the densification kinetics is lowered.
Increasing the liquid content up to approximately 35 volume percent aids initial
densification. A coarse particle size and a high green density act to offset the
favourable effects of the melt.
In case the second stage is not effective, the melt will penetrate along the
interparticle interfaces and cause particle separation. This will contribute in swelling.
a small dihedral angle inhibits coalescence of neighbouring particles.

Wetting phenomenon in LPS:

Wetting is a very important phenomena which is happening during LPS.

Figure represents the surface tensions of a multi-phase junction as vectors drawn
parallel to the respective surfaces,
The surface energies for different interfaces is given by
γsl = solid/liquid
γsv = solid/vapor
γlv = liquid/vapor
The vectors representing these surface energies must balance at the three phase
triple junction. This equation representing this balance is known as ‘Youngs’
equation”

sv  sl  cos( )lv

Large γsv, wetting θ small

Large γsl, non-wetting θ Large

Grain boundary wetting during LPS occurs when θA and θB approach zero

   cos(B )   cos(A)
AB BL AL
Examples of LPS:
 Powder Metallurgy parts
-- Copper/Tin alloys
-- Iron/Copper structural parts
--Tungsten Carbide/Cobalt cemented carbides
 Ceramics
-- Silicon Nitride with a glassy liquid phase (2wt% alumina + 6wt%
yttria)
-- SiC with Silicon liquid phase

Disadvantages of LPS:

 Compact slumping (shape distortion) which occurs when too much liquid is
formed during sintering
 The same parameters which control the sintered microstructure often control the
final properties
 Useful application temperature of the material is sometimes limited by the
presence of too much low melting point material
3. Reactive sintering

Particles react with each other to new product phases in general, refers to
process in which the activation energy for sintering is lowered. This is mostly
achieved by chemical addition to the powder. For certain metals, particularly
refractory metals,the addition of dopant causes the densification kinetics to increase
as much as 100 times compared with undoped compacts. The best activators are
palladium and nickel. Nickel is often added as a solution of its salt which is reduced
to the metal and forms a layer several monatomic layers thick on the surface of the
tungsten powder particles.

Reactive Sintering:
 Two or more constituents in a compact react during sintering to form a new
phase or phases
 The reaction is normally exothermic and can contribute to an enhancement of
sintering
 In some cases the reaction is so exothermic that it can generate sufficient heat to
cause self-sintering without external heating except that required for initiating the
reaction
 This is the basis of combustion synthesis which if properly controlled can
produce a relatively dense compact of the synthesized reaction product
Example of reaction sintering is
3TiO2 + 4AlN → 2Al2O3 + 2TiN + N2

3. Loose Sintering

This method is quite widely used for manufacture of highly porous parts like
filters. Basically, metal powder is poured or vibrated into a mould which is then
heated to the sintering temperature in an appropriate atmosphere.
The form and complexity of shape which can be made by this method depend to a
large extent on the flow characteristics of the powder. Since shrinkage usually takes
place during sintering, only shapes where this can occur without mould constraint
causing cracking can be used. The characteristics required of the mould material for
loose sintering are:
(i)It should be easily machined or formed into the required shape,
(ii) it should withstand the sintering temperature without appreciable
deformation and
(iii) it should not weld to the powder during sintering. For most applications
machined or welded metal moulds are used, although graphite may also be
employed where no reaction with the powder is likely, and even here a
refractory mould wash may suffice to prevent reaction. Since no pressure is
applied to the powder any unreducible oxide skin on the particle will prevent
metal-to-metal contact and inhibit sintering. For this reason it is virtually
impossible to loose sinter aluminium powder.
Important Parameters in Sintering:

We can divide these parameters into four broad categories

 Powder preparation:
-- Particle size
-- Shape
-- Size distribution
 Distribution of:
-- Dopants
-- Second phases
 Powder Consolidation:
-- Density
-- Pore size distribution
 Firing:
-- Heating rate
-- Temperature
-- Applied pressure
-- Atmosphere
4. Process Variables

The most important factors involved during sintering process are temperature,
time and furnace atmosphere. The influence of these factors on the sintering
process is described below.
Sintering Temperature:

Increasing the sintering temperature greatly increases the rate and magnitude of any
changes occurring during sintering.
Sintering Time:

Although the degree of sintering increases with increasing time the effect is small in
comparison to the temperature dependence.
The loss of driving force with increasing time at any temperature is one of the
reasons why it is so very difficult to remove all porosity by sintering. An attempt
should be made to achieve the desired properties of the sintered parts by shorter
sintering times and correspondingly higher temperatures.
However, the maintenance costs and energy consumption of a furnace increase
when its operating temperature is raised.
Sintering Atmosphere:

The proper production, use and control of sintering atmospheres which are essential
for the optimum use of the powder metallurgy process are described in a later
section.
5 Material Variables

Particle Size:

In terms of the basic stages of sintering, decreasing particlesize leads to increased

sintering. The smaller particle size has a Greater pore/solid interfacial area
producing a greater driving force for sintering.
It promotes all types of diffusion transport, e.g. greater surface area leads to more
surface diffusion, small grain size promotes grain boundary diffusion and a larger
interparticle contact area to volume diffusion.
Particle Shape:

The factors that lead to greater intimate contact between particles and increased
internal surface area promote sintering. These factors include decreasing sphericity
and increasing macro- or microsurface roughness.
Particle Structure:

A fine grain structure within the original particles can promote sintering because of
its favourable effect on several material transport mechanisms.
Particle Composition:

Alloying additions or impurities within a metal can affect the sintering kinetics. The
effect can either be deleterious or beneficial depending upon the distribution and
reaction of the impurity.
Surface contamination, such as oxidation is usually undesirable. Dispersed phases
within the matrix may promote sintering by inhibiting grain boundary motion.
Reaction between impurities and either the base metal or alloying additions at the
relatively high sintering temperature may be undesirable.
Green Density:

A decreasing green density signifies an increasing amount of internal surface area

and consequently, a greater driving force for sintering.
Although the percentage change in density, increases with decreasing green density,
the absolute value of the sintered density remains highest for the higher green
density material.
6 Dimensional Changes

Changes in dimensions resulting from sintering represent an important field in

powder metallurgy, especially with respect to large scale production of parts with
small dimensional tolerance. The fundamental process of sintering leads to a
reduction in volume because of pore shrinkage and elimination.
Following factors in this regard may be considered:
Entrapped Gases:

The expansion of gas in closed porosity has been postulated as producing compact
expansion.
Chemical Reactions:

Hydrogen is a common component of sintering atmospheres and can often diffuse

through the metal to isolated portions of the compact where it reacts with oxygen to
form water vapour. The pressure of the water vapour can lead to expansion of the
entire mass. It is also possible to have reactions that lead to the loss of some
element from the sinter mass to the atmosphere, such as volatilizing, and result in a
shrinkage of the material.
Alloying:

Alloying that may take place between two or more elemental powders very often
leads to compact expansion. This effect which is due to the formation of a solid
solution is often offset by shrinkage of the original porosity. Dimensional changes
may also occur in a binary system where the rate of diffusion of each metal into the
other is different.
Shape Changes:

Green parts invariably contain variations in green density.Such variations can lead to
substantial changes in shape because of the strong dependence of sintering,
especially shrinkage, on green density. Low green density regions will exhibit a
greater amount of shrinkage during sintering.
For example, a cylinder with a relatively high L/D ratio compacted by a single action
method would have a gradually decreasing green density from one end to the other.
Such as cylinder would change during sintering into a truncated cone. A cylinder
prepared by a double action method, on the other hand, would likely achieve an
‘hourglass’ shape. Many times, the shrinkage (or expansion) is different in two
directions – axial and radial, and must be taken into account during design of the
compacting tools. Parts with complex and asymmetrical shapes, exhibit uneven
shrinkage during sintering and loss of the desired tolerances. To restore lost
tolerance sizing operation is generally carriedout.
For the users point of view it is easier to maintain narrow tolerances on the contours
than on the axial dimensions.
 Some parameters, such as the sintering temperature, applied pressure, average
particle size and atmosphere can be controlled with sufficient accuracy.
 Others, such as the powder characteristics and particle packing are more difficult
to control but have a significant effect on sintering
 Atomic diffusion takes place and the welded areas formed during compaction
grow until eventually they may be lost completely
 Recrystallisation and grain growth may follow, and the pores tend to become
rounded and the total porosity, as a percentage of the whole volume tends to
decrease
Post Sintering Operations:

1) Re-Pressing

Even with the best control that is feasible in practice, there will inevitably be some
variation in the dimensions of parts produced from a given material in a given die set
Typically, it is possible for parts 'as-sintered' to be accurate to a tolerance of
-0.0508mm per mm, in the direction at right angles to the pressing -direction, and
0.1016mm per mm parallel to the pressing direction
Dimensional accuracy can be greatly improved by re-pressing the part after
sintering. This operation is called “sizing”
2) Hot Re-Press

Hot Repressing will give even greater densification, with consequent greater
improvement in the mechanical properties, but less accurate control of the final
dimensions is to be expected
3) Hot Isostatic Pressing

HIP is used as a post-sintering operation to eliminate flaws and micro-porosity in

cemented carbides
4) Forging

Forging is a comparatively recent technique in which a blank is hot re-pressed in

a closed die which significantly changes the shape of the part, and at the same time
can give almost complete density and hence mechanical properties approaching or
even surpassing those of traditional wrought parts
5) Infiltration

An alternative method of improving the strength of inherently porous sintered

parts is to fill the surface connected pores with a liquid metal having a lower melting
point. Pressure is not required, capillary action is sufficient
6) Impregnation

This term is used for a process analogous to infiltration except that the pores are
filled with an organic as opposed to a metallic material
7) Heat Treatment

Although many, perhaps the bulk of sintered structural parts are used in the as-
sintered or sintered and sized condition, large quantities of iron-based parts, are
supplied in the hardened and tempered conditions. Heating should be in a gas
atmosphere followed by oil-quenching
8) Surface-Hardening

Carburizing and carbonitriding of PM parts is extensively used, and again

gaseous media are indicated
9) Steam Treatment

A process peculiar to PM parts is steam-treatment which involves exposing the

part at a temperature around 500°C to high pressure steam. This leads to the
formation of a layer of magnetite
10) Blueing

Heating in air at a lower temperature (200-250°C) can also be used to provide a

thin magnetite layer that gives some increase in corrosion resistance, but it is much
less effective than steam treatment
11) Plating

Sintered parts may be plated in much the same way as wrought or cast metals,
and copper, nickel, cadmium, zinc, and chromium plating are all used
12) Coatings

A large percentage of hard metal cutting tool inserts are now coated using
chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or physical vapor deposition (PVD)
13) Mechanical Treatments

Although a major attraction of PM parts is that they can be produced accurately

to the required dimensions, there are limitations to the geometry that can be pressed
in rigid dies, and subsequent machining, for example of transverse holes or re-
entrants at an angle to the pressing direction is not uncommon
14) De-burring

De-burring is done with sintered parts, and is used to remove any 'rag' on edges,
resulting from the compacting operation or a machining step

Advantages of Sintering:

Particular advantages of this powder technology include:

1. the possibility of very high purity for the starting materials and their great
uniformity
2 Preservation of purity due to the restricted nature of subsequent fabrication
steps
3. stabilization of the details of repetitive operations by control of grain size in the
input stages
4. absence of stringering of segregated particles and inclusions (as often occurs in
melt processes)
5. no requirement for deformation to produce directional elongation of grains

Various stages of sintering can be grouped in the following sequence:

o Initial bonding among particles
o Neck growth
o Pore channel closure
o Pore rounding
o Densification or pore shrinkage
o Pore coarsening
Sometimes some stage overlaps over the later stages.
Among various mechanisms evaporation and condensation, surface, grain boundary
and volume diffusion and plastic deformation mechanisms are prevalent.
MICROSTRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF SINTERING AND GRAINGROWTH

Manufacture of a ceramic component usually involves high-

temperaturesintering heat treatment of the green, packed powder
c o m p a c t . T h e p r o c e s s e s which take place on heating ceramic compacts are
controlled by the characteristic properties of the green compact and the
atmosphere, pressure and temperature(including heating and cooling rates)
used for sintering. Important green bodycharacteristics affecting sintering
behavior include both the composition of thec o m p o n e n t p o w d e r s a n d t h e
g r e e n d e n s i t y. H i g h g r e e n d e n s i t y i s d e s i r e d a s i t usually leads to a high
sintered density and greater mechanical strength (reducedc r i t i c a l f l a w c o n t e n t ) .
O t h e r i m p o r t a n t g r e e n b o d y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s a r e t h e p o r e content (size,
distribution and shape), the particle size distribut ion, shape andalignment, and
the extento f m i x i n g o f e a c h component powder.

Pores attached to grain boundaries can be removed more easily becausediffusion of

atoms into the pore (equivalent to migration of vacancies out of it sothat it shrinks) is
rapid. Pores attached to grain boundaries are beneficial in twoways.Firstly, they are
more easily removed by rapid grain boundary diffusion.Secondly, they also act to inhibit
grain growth by pinning grain boundaries (thiscan also be achieved by second phase
inclusions on the grain boundaries).Consequently, it may not be an advantage to
remove the pores too early onsintering as this may encourage grain growth.
 Grain boundary diffusion is an important process for densification of mostcrystalline
materials and appears to be the dominant mechanism for many commonceramics
including alumina.
Volume diffusion is often restricted by the defect structure of the ceramics.In ionic
materials, the mobility of the slower ion species dictates the sintering rate.
If mass transport to occur aroundthe microstructure by diffusion rather than
simply for growth to occur by atoms jumping across grain boundaries further
complicates grain growth. Consequently,second phases can be used to stabilize
the microstructure against grain growth.
illustrates that grain growth inhibition is most effective when Vd isl a r g e . I f
the inclusions are small pores evenly distributed around a
d e n s i f y i n g ceramic then they limit grain growth very effectively until
densification is welladvanced. Pores act in a similar way to inclusions except that
their volume fraction(the porosity) decreases throughout the sintering process.Dopants
or impurities in solid solution may segregate to grain boundaries b e c a u s e
ions of larger or smaller size than the host ions can be more
r e a d i l y accommodated there than within the bulk lattice. This can reduce γ gb,
and grain boundary mobility so that densification can proceed further because pores
remainat the grain boundaries where atom transport into them (equivalent to
vacancyt r a n s p o r t o u t ) i s m o r e r a p i d . A s g r a i n s g r o w, t h e r e m a i n i n g
b o u n d a r i e s c o l l e c t more impurity and become less mobile. It is believed that this is
the explanation for the success of minor MgO additions preventing grain growth in
alumina.In summary, grain growth must be controlled in polycrystalline ceramicssince
the size and morphology of grains play important roles in the resulting properties such
as strength and toughness and in order to achieve high density.
(e) Abnormal grain growthSecondary recrystallization
, abnormal, exaggerated, or discontinuous graingrowth, or coarsening is the process by
which a few large grains are nucleated andgrow at the expense of a fine-grained,
but essentially strain-free matrix (Figure6(b)). It occurs when most
boundaries have become immobile and the only onesable to move are the highly
curved boundaries of the largest grains. Once a singlegrain grows to such a size that it
has many more sides than the neighboring grains(such as the one labeled 50 in Figure
7) the curvature of each side increases and itg r o w s m o r e r a p i d l y t h a n t h e
smaller grains with fewer sides.

A b n o r m a l g r a i n growth can occur in both SSS and LPS material and

generally should be avoidedsince the grain boundaries are separated from
pores leaving residual porosity andt h e l a r g e g r a i n s m a k e t h e
m i c r o s t r u c t u r e h e t e r o g e n e o u s a n d m a y d e g r a d e properties.
A b n o r m a l g r a i n g r o w t h i s c o m m o n i n , f o r e x a m p l e , B a Ti O 3,
Z n O , S13 N4and Al203. Figure 9 shows abnormally grown grains in hot-pressed
Si3 N4.
Recent studies have indicated that such microstructures in, for
example,alumina and silicon nitride may have good mechanical properties. Note the
tabular shape of the coarse grains which interlock the microstructure and lead to
increasedresistance to crack growth by bridging cracks (like fibers in composite
materials),so-called R-curve behavior.To study the fundamental processes involved in
sintering, modelexperiments have been developed to separately investigate the
coarsening anddensification processes. For example, hot pressing provides a means of
studyingdensification with only a limited amount of grain growth since the driving
forcearising from the applied pressure acts on the densification process but not
oncoarsening. This is why hot pressing produces such fine grained microstructures.

Bibliography:
https://www.itescam.edu.mx/principal/sylabus/fpdb/recursos/r60579.DOC
 Ceramic Processing and Sintering by M.N. Rahaman
 Ceramic Matrix Composites by Richard Warren
 Ceramic Fabrication Technology by Roy. W. Rice
The Inorganic Chemistry of Materials- How to Make Things Out of Elements by Paul
J. Van Der Put
 Liquid Phase Sintering by Randell M. German-Technology
 Blake Concise Dictionary
 Wikepedia-the Free Encyclopedia
 www.azom.com
 www.mse.mtu.edu
 www.epma.com