Master Sintering Curve for a Two-Phase Material

Blaine, D. C., Garg, P., & German, R. (2005). Master Sintering Curve for a Two-Phase Material. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Science. Technology and Applications of Sintering. 264-267.

Abstract

A new two-phase master sintering curve model for sintering densification of gas-atomized 17-4PH stainless steel, with consideration of ��-ferrite content, is developed. A phase transition from ��-austenite to ��-ferrite starts at 1200°C in 17- 4PH stainless steel, changing the rate of densification significantly during sintering from this point on. The conventional master sintering curve concept has difficulty describing this phenomena accurately. The new two-phase master sintering curve is characterized by two temperature regions with two corresponding activation energies and two different rates of densification. This new concept can be easily extended to other sintering systems with two or multiple phases. The newly developed sinter model is shown to predict density evolution for a MIM compact during sintering in an industrial pusher furnace. The predicted final density shows good agreement with experimentally measured values.