Spark plasma sintering

The main characteristic of SPS is that the pulsed or unpulsed DC or AC current directly passes through the graphite die, as well as the powder compact, in case of conductive samples.

This facilitates a very high heating or cooling rate (up to 1000 K/min), hence the sintering process generally is very fast (within a few minutes).

The general speed of the process ensures it has the potential of densifying powders with nanosize or nanostructure while avoiding coarsening which accompanies standard densification routes.

This has made SPS a good method for preparation of a range of materials with enhanced magnetic,[5] magnetoelectric,[6] piezoelectric,[7] thermoelectric,[8] optical[9] or biomedical[10] properties.

Products like body armor, rocket nozzles, carbon fiber composites and several other hybrid materials can be produced in commercial scale using these equipment.