[2] The technique is based on storage of electrostatic energy in a high voltage capacitor bank, and discharge into the sintering apparatus at low voltage (<30 V) and high current through step-down transformers on a pre-compacted powder compact which is kept under pressure.
The method, analogous to resistive sintering, is a direct evolution of a welding technology named Capacitor Discharge Welding (Kondensator-Impulsschweißen).
[5][6][7] For this reason the technique which employs low voltages and high currents adapted from capacitor discharge welding has been named capacitor discharge sintering.
Other authors also refer to this technology as spark plasma compaction (in reference to the well known spark plasma sintering with whom it has in common only the use of electric currents).
Capacitor discharge sintering is at an experimental/research stage of development in Germany at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum where a prototype machine is installed.