Microwave Technology for Sintering High-Quality Materials (ACT, 2014)
Discover the potential of microwave technology in material sintering with our study, ” Microwave, Spark Plasma and Conventional Sintering to Obtain Controlled Thermal Expansion β-Eucryptite Materials,” published in July 2014 in the International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology.
In this work, lithium aluminosilicate was fabricated by three different methods: conventional, spark plasma and microwave sintering, from 1200 to 1300°C.
Microwave technology developed by DIMAS made possible to obtain fully dense glass-free lithium aluminosilicate bulk material (>99%) with near-zero and controlled coefficient of thermal expansion and excellent mechanical properties (7.1 GPa of hardness and 110 GPa of Young’s modulus).
Microwave sintering, compared with the other techniques, demonstrated a number of benefits. The combination of rapid heating with low energy applied by the microwave technology (eco-friendly process) and the dramatic reduction in cycle time allowed densification without glass phase formation.
