A case study for production of perfectly sintered complex compacts in rapid consolidation by spark sintering

The distribution of voltage, temperature and titanium-compact density in the spark sintering was investigated for clarification of phenomena in the sintering stage governed by plastic deformation mechanism. The largest heat source in a punch–die-two step cylindrical compact system was in the punch with a smaller sectional area. The heat flow was mainly from the smaller punch to the compact. The sintering was mainly promoted by the mechanisms of plastic deformation and power law creep during the continuous current discharge. The effect of the plastic deformation mechanism on the final relative density of compacts was large in the press method and flanged compact used in this study. A procedure, particularly the press method, was proposed on the basis of this result for the production of homogeneously perfect sintered products. This proposed procedure could produce perfectly sintered complex compacts with their designed final dimension.