"Sintering is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by heat or pressure without melting it to the point of liquefaction."
The sintering process is carried out in protective atmospheres or in a vacuum at a temperature below the melting point of the material. The type of sintering process and the sintering conditions are dependent on the composition and properties of the materials to be sintered. Sintering can be carried out in many of the furnaces developed by Carbolite Gero and many of those involved with MIM technology and Metal 3D printing rely on our solutions for the high sintering temperatures that are required.
Among our portfolio of high-quality laboratory and industrial furnace products, the sintering furnace range includes our HTK [high temperature chamber furnaces], HBO [high-temperature vacuum hood furnaces] & HTBL [high-temperature bottom loading furnaces for easy loading and unloading where the sample is accessible from all sides once the hearth is lowered]. These furnaces can either be fitted with molybdenum (1600°C) or tungsten (2200°C) heating elements depending on your requirements. All are designed with operator safety in mind and can be configured to meet your specific temperature & gas atmosphere requirements.
In addition, Carbolite Gero offers special solutions such as our HTK 120 furnace with three heated zones. Thanks to its molybdenum heating elements and unique heating design, the pressure and directed gas flow provide a temperature uniformity better than ± 5 K. Our HTK 120 furnaces have both a manual operation and an automatic operating mode and feature usable volumes of 25, 120 or 250 litres. Debinding and sintering can take place in this one furnace with the debinding phase under partial pressure if required. On request, HTK 120 furnaces can also feature a fast-cooling solution.
A quality sintering furnace such as those manufactured by Carbolite Gero enable atomic diffusion through heating. The addition of thermal energy to the chosen material results in diffusion of atomic and/or ionic components of the material. These diffusion processes change the microstructure of the material, for example crystallization of amorphous phases, crystalline-crystalline phase transformation or a grain growth, resulting in changes to the physical properties of the material from those that were initially present in its green or pre-sintered state.
A typical real-world example of sintering is the change of crystal structure of Zirconia through two phase changes. Initially it is a monoclinic crystalline structure that is stable at ambient temperature. On heating to above 1170 °C a tetragonal lattice structure is observed and then on subsequent heating to around 2370 °C a cubic lattice structure is created.
Frequently, it is the redistribution of dopants or minor constituents of the heterogeneous materials which exert profound changes on the thermal, mechanical or electrical properties of the sintered material.
Carbolite Gero offers a wide range of furnaces and ovens up to 3000 °C
Our team of experts will be happy to advise you on your application and on our product range.
