navigate: home: magazine: spring/summer 2000: article

Scientists from around the world share latest research on sintering by Deborah A. Benedetti
Penn State conference co-chairs Dr. Randall M. German (center), Brush Chair Professor in Materials, and Dr. Gary L. Messing (right), director of the Materials Research Laboratory, organized an international conference on sintering with assistance from Robert G. Cornwall, managing director of the Materials Research Laboratory. Didier Bouvard of the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, presents a keynote address on “Advances in Sintering Modeling and Simulation” during the International Conference on the Science, Technology and Applications of Sintering held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. photo by Dick Ackley University Photo/Graphics Dr. Scott Nordahl, principal scientist at Osram Sylvania Inc. and a Penn State graduate, discusses his research on “Sintering Seeded Gamma-Alumina Powders” during the International Conference on the Science, Technology and Applications of Sintering. photo by Dick Ackley University Photo/Graphics Matthew K. Spencer, a Penn State geosciences graduate student, reports on his research on “The Largest Sintering Experiment: New, Quantitative Relations for the Time-dependent Transformation of Snow to Ice on Polar Glaciers” during the Sintering ’99 conference. photo by Dick Ackley University Photo/Graphics Dr. Sundar V. Atre, director of polymer chemistry for the P/M Lab at Penn State, presents his team’s research on “The Influence of Organic Lubricants to Improve Mechanical Properties in P/M Components” during the Sintering ’99 conference. photo by Dick Ackley University Photo/Graphics	For the second time in four years, the leading scientists working in the field of sintering science met at Penn State to share the latest developments and advances. The second International Conference on the Science, Technology and Applications of Sintering brought together 165 senior scientists from 27 countries. The conference was held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The Sintering ’99 conference was designed to provide a forum for dialog on sintering and a critical assessment of the state of research in this field, as well as opportunities for small-group discussions, according to Dr. Randall M. German, Brush Chair Professor in Materials at Penn State. He and Dr. Gary L. Messing, professor of ceramic science and engineering and director of the Materials Research Laboratory at Penn State, co-chaired the conference, which also offered participants informal tours of related Penn State labs. The conference co-chairs noted that over the past 50 years, there has been a series of important conferences aimed at documenting the status of sintering theory and practice. Previous meetings were organized by the Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame, the University of British Columbia and the International Institute for the Science of Sintering in Yugoslavia. In September 1995, Penn State’s Particulate Materials Center and the P/M Lab hosted the first international conference on sintering at The Penn Stater. German and Messing said, “Penn State hosts the conference on sintering because of the recognition by the sintering community that Penn State maintains a critical mass in this field. The University has the resources, faculty base, students and history to be recognized as a world leader in sintering science. Hosting the conference benefits Penn State in many ways, including enhancing the ability for a large number of students to participate in research dissemination and maintaining the University’s reputation as a leader in the field of sintering. When asked if the conference should be moved to other locations, attendees responded that they thought it should be the ‘Penn State meeting.’ “We were fortunate to have the world’s experts participate in critical discussions and analyses of our current understanding of sintering concepts in 1995 and to continue this program in 1999,” German and Messing said. “Based on input from the attendees of Sintering ’99, this will be an ongoing, once-every-four-years program at Penn State.” As one of the leading research universities in materials processing, Penn State hosts a variety of experts in the field of sintering. In addition to research by German and Messing, there are a number of sintering-related research programs at Penn State. Merrilea Mayo, associate professor of materials science and engineering, is developing sintering laws for the densification of nanoscale powders. David Green, professor of ceramic science and engineering, is determining how mechanical strength develops during the sintering process and is using this information to predict how sintering damage evolves as a function of thermomechanical stresses in co-sintered systems. Thomas Shrout, professor of materials, and Clive Randall, associate professor of materials science and engineering, have been studying how electroceramic systems densify, with special emphasis on atmosphere effects during the sintering of multilayer ceramics with base metal electrodes. Rapid densification and microstructure control is the focus of Professor of Materials Dinesh Agrawal’s research on the microwave sintering of ceramics, powdered metals and composites. John Hellmann, professor and program chair for Ceramic Science and Engineering and Electronic and Photonic Materials, and Maurice Amateau, professor of engineering science and mechanics, have an ongoing program on the sintering of functionally graded and laminated materials for high-performance structural applications. Richard Queeney, professor of engineering mechanics, is examining the sintered properties of several high-performance ferrous alloys, and Barbara Shaw, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, is involved in sintered automotive stainless steel exhaust flanges. What is sintering? Robert G. Cornwall, managing director of the Materials Research Laboratory at Penn State and organizer of the conference, explained that “sintering is a method for bonding and consolidating ceramic and metal particles at the microscopic level, below the melting point. Sintering is used to make metal and ceramic parts in a high-production process and also can be used to make unique metal alloys and ceramic systems. “One example of sintering that people have seen in their homes is ice cubes that stick together in the freezer,” Cornwall added. “While ice cubes are in the freezer, sintering processes are at work below the melting point of water, causing the cubes to stick together.” The Sintering ’99 conference featured five keynote addresses, 135 presentations in 36 technical sessions and 15 poster presentations on the topics of modeling and simulation of sintering, modeling of grain growth, in situ observation of sintering, sintering kinetics, liquid phase sintering, processing-sintering-microstructure relations, dimensional control, sintering in reactive systems, novel sintering techniques, pressure-assisted densification, atmospheric effects and control, microstructure characterization, ceramics, metals, composites/cermets, nanocrystalline materials, optical ceramics, nonoxides, electronic ceramics, high-speed steels, cemented carbides, refractory materials, intermetallics and amorphous materials. Cornwall, German and Messing worked with Continuing Education’s Conferences and Institutes staff to plan the conference. The conference also was supported by Penn State’s Materials Research Laboratory and the P/M Lab. An outreach program of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences