Rapid Plasma Sintering

Keywords: microwave sintering, nanogrind, CCDP‌.

Description

A novel plasma sintering technology has been developed. This process concept called Nanogrind was a runner-up in the 11th NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP). Nanogrind's core technology is the use of plasma heating as a processing tool for the fabrication of metal bonded diamond composites. These composites are formed by mixing powders of the two materials together and then firing them in a plasma.

Nanogrind's novel processing technology has several advantages over conventional processing techniques. As the plasma heating is very rapid and highly energy efficient, this fabrication route yields superior bond properties between powder particles. This results in enhanced mechanical performance which can facilitate the fabrication of sub mm-micro tooling applications. Typical firing times are 10 minutes compared with up to 30 hours in a furnace.

Contact details

Prof. Denis Dowling
Director UCD Surface Engineering
Email: (opens in a new window)denis.dowling@ucd.ie