Two sintering methods of a pressureless sintering and a spark-plasma sintering are tested to densify the Fe-TiC composite powders which are fabricated by high-energy ball-milling. A powder mixture of Fe and TiC is prepared in a planetary ball mill at a rotation speed of 500 rpm for 1h. Pressureless sintering is performed at 1100, 1200 and 1300oC for 1-3 hours in a tube furnace under flowing argon gas atmosphere. Spark-plasma sintering is carried out under the following condition: sintering temperature of 1050oC, soaking time of 10 min, sintering pressure of 50 MPa, heating rate of 50oC, and in a vacuum of 0.1 Pa. The curves of shrinkage and its derivative (shrinkage rate) are obtained from the data stored automatically during sintering process. The densification behaviors are investigated from the observation of fracture surface and cross-section of the sintered compacts. The pressureless-sintered powder compacts show incomplete densification with a relative denstiy of 86.1% after sintering at 1300oC for 3h. Spark-plasma sintering at 1050oC for 10 min exhibits nearly complete densification of 98.6% relative density under the sintering pressure of 50 MPa.

• 이병훈((주)지아이엘) | B. H. Lee
• 배상원(울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) | S. W. Bae
• 배선우(울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) | S. W. Bae
• H. X. Khoa(하노이과학기술대학교 재료공학부)
• 김지순(울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) | J. S. Kim Corresponding Author