Advanced Materials Manufacturing - Field Assisted Sintering Technology (FAST)
Abstract
This effort addresses limitations of conventional sintering processes. Conventional sintering takes from hours to days in a sintering oven, and the beneficial characteristics of nano-structured materials are lost when the material is sintered. FAST has the potential to dramatically reduce cycle time and manufacturing costs while maintaining the beneficial characteristics of nano-structured materials. The FAST process passes a pulsed direct current through the part while it is pressed in a die, and the combination of rapid heating and compressive loading results in fine grained, fully dense materials in short processing times that are not possible with conventional sintering processes. Many parts that are made with a powder press and sinter process are candidates for FAST, but this project will focus on ceramic body and vehicle armor, tungsten kinetic energy penetrators, infrared windows, heat sinks for electromagnetic propulsion cooling, and hypersonic and high temperature for enhanced performance jet propulsion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2014
- Source ID
- cedce1d7ed14433d70c47ee5f307479c