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Small image furnace for rapid sintering, A
Tellez Gonzalez, Jaime Esteban
Tellez Gonzalez, Jaime Esteban
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2025
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Abstract
Multiple techniques have been investigated to increase energy and/or time efficiency of the thermal processing of ceramics, such as sintering, by decreasing the time and/or temperature required. Many of these methods require expensive, specialized equipment, and the addition of extra processing parameters complicates linking processing to properties. Fundamental understanding of the effects of heating rate, sintering temperature and time, and other parameters is more straightforward when confounding variables can be excluded, and replicating studies and exploring the effects of processing parameters is easier when the necessary equipment is not only inexpensive, but also feasible to build and modify at a lab scale.
In this work, we present a miniature image furnace which is capable of heating samples to over 1000 °C at 100s of °C/minute. We demonstrate the applicability of the furnace for materials science studies by sintering small barium titanate pellets to moderate (~95%) densities within minutes. The relative permittivities and dielectric losses of these pellets were measured. A thermal camera was used to record the surface temperatures of the pellets during sintering, and scanning electron microscopy was used to qualify the relationship between the surface temperature of the pellets and grain size. Measurements were also done on a set of conventionally sintered barium titanate pellets to confirm that optical sintering is capable of producing specimens with properties similar to those made via conventional sintering, albeit with microstructural heterogeneity within the samples owing the the extreme thermal gradients present within them.
The results of preliminary studies with rutile and barium titanate samples which failed during or after sintering, or contained severe flaws, are presented as motivation for further studies to explore heat transfer during optical sintering. Lunar regolith simulant was melted to demonstrate the applicability of the optical furnace to multiple material systems.
This work demonstrates that the optical furnace is readily modifiable and adaptable to multiple configurations, is capable of processing multiple materials, and can quickly generate samples with properties comparable to those made with conventional methods.
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