Consolidation Behavior of Pure Niobium Powder in Spark Plasma Sintering

摘要

The sintering behavior and microstructure of ball-milled niobium (Nb) powders in spark plasma sintering process were investigated. The initial powder (particle size of -325 mesh) was ball milled for 0hr (BM0), 1hrs (BM1) and 2hrs (BM2) under Ar atmosphere at room temperature to reduce the crystalline size. The milled powders were consolidated by spark plasma sintering up to 1000°C at the rate of 10°C/min. The sintered relative density and average grain sizes of the sintered parts for BM0, BM1 and BM2 were 0.87, 0.92 and 1.00 and 30, 20 and 5μm, respectively.