Sintering

The practice of sintering now reaches from pottery to glaciation. Core to the sintering science are efforts in platinum (today seen in catalytic devices), tungsten (largely for incandescent lighting), cemented carbides (metal cutting and oil well drilling), electronic ceramics (dielectrics, substrates), automotive ferrous components (engine valves, connecting rods), and a host of applications including Teflon, rapid prototyping, and superconducting wires.

As sintering applications have marched toward a $30 billion global business, the models for sintering have progressed, but generally follow behind observation. Documentation on the steps needed to build to a quantitative and predictive theory are often missed. Hence, this book partitions sintering applications and observations to show critical turning points required to establish modern sintering as a predictive science. It is laced with people, organizations, critical steps, and important formulations in a mixture of history, personalities, important applications, and how insights in seemingly unrelated fields sparked progress. It is the first to create a historical record of who, what, when, what organization, why, and so on. Second it is a teaching tool to show where there is success, where there are problems, and how to organize teams to leapfrog to new applications or plateaus of use. This will be a platform for directly addressing the critical control parameters in these new research and development efforts.

• More than just a book on sintering history, German shows readers how the theories and understanding of the science were developed and improved over time, and how different products were developed, ultimately leading to important knowledge and lessons for solving real sintering problems.
• Covers all the necessary infrastructure of sintering theory and practice, such as atomic theory, surface energy, micrstructure, and measurement and observation tools.
• Introduces the reader to the history and development of such early sintered products as procelain, tungsten lamp filaments, bronze bearings, steel automotive components, platinum crucibles and more.