Spark plasma sintering of dispersion hardened Cu-Cr-Nb alloy powders

The densification behavior of dispersion hardened Cu-Cr-Nb alloy powders has been studied by spark plasma sintering using varying stress and temperature. The densification has been strongly inhibited by the presence of intermetallic Cr2Nb precipitates. The mechanically milled powders with disk shaped nature have resulted in higher relative density as compared to spherical shaped gas atomized powders in all the experiments. The hardness and compressive yield strength of the sintered alloy samples have been found to have a linear relationship with relative density and it was independent of process parameters for both the atomized and milled powders.