Preface

Chapter 6 **Metal Matrix Composites Added of Nanostructured**

Leiliane Alves de Oliveira, Uílame Umbelino Gomes, Ariadne Souza

Chapter 7 **Consolidation of AISI316L Austenitic Steel — TiB2 Composites**

Chapter 8 **Correlation between Thermal and Electrical Properties of Spark**

Yaniv Gelbstein, Yedidia Haim, Sergei Kalabukhov, Vladimir

**Plasma Sintered (SPS) Porous Copper 155**

Chapter 9 **Recycling of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Scrap**

Kasiyan, S. Hartmann, S. Rothe and Nahum Frage

**Section 4 Ram Extrusion and Hot Sintering of Reprocessed PTFE 167**

Arunachalam Lakshmanan and S.K. Chakraborty

**Tantalum Carbide 107**

Silva and Emanuel João Batista

**by SPS and HP-HT Technology 125**

**Section 3 Sintering Techniques on Metals 123**

Iwona Sulima

**VI** Contents

**Materials 169**

Sintering is the process of fusing together ceramic, metallic or plastic particles under heat and pressure, blending them to enhance their strength and other properties, as well as wear life. Most materials products for use in key industries such as electronics, nuclear and aero‐ space are fabricated by sintering. Lots of novel sintering technologies, such as spark plasma sintering, mechanical alloying combined with hot isostatic pressing, and microwave sinter‐ ing, have been developed during the past twenty years. However, it is still crucial to have processing methods to fabricate dense components by techniques that can retain the particle size or designed composition distribution in the final microstructure.

The present book covers new sintering techniques on ceramic materials, metals and composites as well as reprocessed PTFE. This is a continuation of an earlier book published by InTech in 2012 on Sintering of Ceramics – New Emerging Techniques edited by me. The book covers theoretical as well as experimental aspects on Spark Plasma Sintered (SPS) Porous copper, de‐ velopment of cutting blades with high hardness and resistance to cracking and wear, increased microhardness of austenitic steel–TiB2 composites obtained with high pressure - high tempera‐ ture sintering, Al 2O 3 porous body with cotton as the template and excellent thermal insulation with direct application for refractories as well as metal matrix composites added nanostruc‐ tured tantalum carbide and an overview of different sintering techniques used in powder met‐ allurgy. In the case of SPS, the combination of internal heating and external pressure provides the conditions for fast sintering. The mostly popular laser-based AM techniques, namely selec‐ tive laser melting (SLM), electron beam melting (EBM), laser metal deposition (LMD) and selec‐ tive laser sintering (SLS) for the fabrication of Ti-6Al-4V have been overviewed based on an analysis of over 100 individual studies. Finally recycling of PTFE scrap materials using ram extrusion and compression molding are described.

> **Arunachalam Lakshmanan** Saveetha Engineering College, Thandalam, Chennai, India
