Liquid phase sintering (LPS) is a process for forming high performance, multiple-phase components from powders. It involves sintering under conditions where solid grains coexist with a wetting liquid. Many variants of LPS are applied to a wide range of engineering materials. Example applications for this technology are found in automobile engine connecting rods and high-speed metal cutting inserts. Scientific advances in understanding LPS began in the 1950s. The resulting quantitative process models are now embedded in computer simulations to enable predictions of the sintered component dimensions, microstructure, and properties. However, there are remaining areas in need of research attention. This LPS review, based on over 2,500 publications, outlines what happens when mixed powders are heated to the LPS temperature, with a focus on the densification and microstructure evolution events.

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Review: liquid phase sintering

Sintering and accompanying microstructural evolution is inarguably the most important step in the processing of ceramics and hard metals. In this process, an ensemble of particles is converted into a coherent object of controlled density and microstructure at an elevated temperature (but below the melting point) due to the thermodynamic tendency of the particle system to decrease its total surface and interfacial energy. Building on a long development history as a major technological process, sintering remains among the most viable methods of fabricating novel ceramics, including high surface area structures, nanopowder-based systems, and tailored structural and functional materials. Developing new and perfecting existing sintering techniques is crucial to meet ever-growing demand for a broad range of technologically significant systems including, for example, fuel and solar cell components, electronic packages and elements for computers and wireless devices, ceramic and metal-based bioimplants, thermoelectric materials, materials for thermal management, and materials for extreme environments. In this study, the current state of the science and technology of sintering is presented. This study is, however, not a comprehensive review of this extremely broad field. Furthermore, it only focuses on the sintering of ceramics. The fundamentals of sintering, including the thermodynamics and kinetics for solid-state- and liquid-phase-sintered systems are described. This study summarizes that the sintering of amorphous ceramics (glasses) is well understood and there is excellent agreement between theory and experiments. For crystalline materials, attention is drawn to the effect of the grain boundary and interface structure on sintering and microstructural evolution, areas that are expected to be significant for future studies. Considerable emphasis is placed on the topics of current research, including the sintering of composites, multilayered systems, microstructure-based models, multiscale models, sintering under external stresses, and innovative and novel sintering approaches, such as field-assisted sintering. This study includes the status of these subfields, the outstanding challenges and opportunities, and the outlook of progress in sintering research. Throughout the manuscript, we highlight the important lessons learned from sintering fundamentals and their implementation in practice.

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Current understanding and future research directions at the onset of the next century of sintering science and technology

This chapter describes the fundamentals of grain growth and densification, and related microstructural evolution during liquid phase sintering (LPS). Two different types of grain growth behavior, stationary (conventionally called normal) and nonstationary in terms of the relative grain size distribution, and their theoretical treatments are described. Particular emphasis is placed on the prediction of nonstationary grain growth with the suggestion of general principles of microstructural evolution during LPS. Fundamental differences between the two densification mechanisms, contact flattening and pore filling, are described and their validities discussed. Model calculations of densification kinetics by pore filling theory are also provided.

Liquid phase sintering

The effect of the atmosphere and the role of pore filling on the sintering of aluminium

A model for liquid phase sintering

The elimination of isolated large pores during liquid phase sintering has been studied in a 96Mo–4Ni alloy (wt-%). The large pores have been produced at the site of spherical Ni particles upon thei...

S.-J. L. Kang

Papers

Elimination of Pores During Liquid Phase Sintering of Mo—Ni