Inorganic interfacial engineering:: processing of hard materials

Inorganic interfacial engineering may be regarded as the core of powder metallurgical processing of hard materials. The present paper reviews recent results from an interdisciplinary research effort, BRIIE ( the Brinell Centre for Inorganic Interfacial Engineering), a joint effort between five industrial companies, three universities, two research institutes and VINNOVA ( the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems). The research involves experimental work on the aqueous processing of powders and the use of surface actants is reviewed as well as the colloidal processing of ceramics. Pressing and sintering of agglomerated powders have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. Models for the simulation of pressing and sintering of hard metal powders are developed. Results on ceramic materials obtained by spark plasma sintering and their resistance to thermal shock are reported.