Latest Developments and Trends for the Industrial Application of FAST/SPS Technique
 
Benjamin Luthardt 1, Jürgen Hennicke 2
 
b.luthardt@fct-systeme.de
 
In the past two decades, the Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST), also known as Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), has been successfully established for rapid sintering applications. With the focus on the implementation of this technique into industrial applications, the achieved scientific results could have been transferred in practical. Together with a multiplicity of industrial partners and based on its own R&D activity in its in-house technology center, FCT Systeme GmbH could implement these FAST/SPS techniques successfully in customized plant concepts.
 
With more than 40 years of experience and its wide portfolio of different sintering technologies, FCT is covering the complete range from laboratory plants up to highly specialized industrial furnaces.
 
The company has certainly committed to the development of customized- and efficient plants which achieve a maximum of performance and service life. A team of highly skilled engineers and scientists is working together in close cooperation with global customers to develop solutions with the purpose of sustainable process optimization.
 
Innovative hybrid concepts are the latest trend in sintering technology: in the FAST/Hybrid trend-setter, the classic hot-pressing method has been complemented with an additional direct heating of the compacted powder part using impulse-direct current (FAST/SPS). Compared with conventional methods, this hybrid combination goes beyond and enables much more new opportunities.
 
FCT’s new hybrid plants allow previously unrealisable opportunities for the development of innovative materials used in energy, electric mobility, semiconductor and/or aerospace industry as well as other areas relevant for the future (e.g. energy-efficient production).
 
Keywords: spark plasma sintering, field assisted sintering technology, pulsed current process, hybrid sintering
 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                                                                                   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Comparison between conventional FAST/SPS and FAST/Hybrid of a WC sample- disc (D 200 mm)
References
[1] Hennicke, J.; Kessel, T.; Räthel, J.: Enhancements on Fast Sintering Systems Promote Transfer from
the Lab to Industrial Applications. Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings 2017, p. 11–20, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119321736. ch2 A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Journal Title, 2000, 35, 3523.