SINTERING DENSIFICATION FOR POWDER MIXTURES OF VARYING DISTRIBUTION WIDTHS

A model for the sintering of bimodal powders is used to evaluate densification results for log-normal particle size distributions involving a constant median size on a weight basis. The model predicts a minimum in densification for distributions of intermediate width when the green density is held constant. This has been observed experimentally for sintered tungsten powders. As a consequence, wide particle size distributions are attractive for high packing and sintering densities, indicating possible new feedstock formulations for shaping technologies such as powder injection molding and slip casting.