Investigations in the compaction and sintering of large ceramic parts

In this study, a large ceramic part was successfully compacted and sintered using uniaxial die compaction technique. The effects of die design, compaction pressure, lubrication, sintering procedure and part orientation in the oven on the P/M part quality were investigated and the preferred process conditions were discussed and concluded. The main quality issues encountered were cracking and distortion. A finite element model for the powder compaction process was also developed and validated. Based on the model, the relationship between the cracking location and the density distribution predicted from finite element analysis (FEA) was discussed.