Cross polarized photomicrograph of sinter deposits from a kiln.
Sintering furnaces are used in powder metallurgy as well as in the ceramic industry. In both cases powder grains are grown together by diffusion of material at the contact points, so that a bulk body is formed. The mergence of the crystallites happens at a temperature below the melting point of the selected materials in a sintering furnace. Powder metallurgy is a technology for manufacturing bulky shaped metall parts with special material properties, which cannot be assigned by using a conventional casting processes. This method is quite often much more cost effective compared to machining the parts from bulk material. The metal powder is filled in a form and grouted. During sintering, the single grains are merged and a hard, more or less porous body with well defined dimensions is formed. Sintering is done in a sintering furnace or kiln or oven. Sintering is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by heat[1] or pressure[2] without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Sintering happens naturally in mineral deposits or as a manufacturing process used with metals, ceramics, plastics, and other materials. The atoms in the materials diffuse across the boundaries of the particles, fusing the particles together and creating one solid piece. Because the sintering temperature does not have to reach the melting point of the material, sintering is often chosen as the shaping process for materials with extremely high melting points such as tungsten and molybdenum. The study of sintering in metallurgy powder-related processes is known as powder metallurgy. An example of sintering can be observed when ice cubes in a glass of water adhere to each other, which is driven by the temperature difference between the water and the ice. Examples of pressure-driven sintering are the compacting of snowfall to a glacier, or the forming of a hard snowball by pressing loose snow together.
Size: 4278px × 2556px
Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: cross, deposits, furnace, kiln., metallurgy, metals, micrograph, microscope, mineralogy, photomicrograph, polarized, prism, quartz, section, sinter, wedge, wollaston
