Application of a spark plasma sintering facility for the heat treatment of compact and powder materials

Spark plasma sintering is widely used for the fast sintering of powders under controlled grain growth conditions and for simultaneous sintering of compounds and consolidation of powder materials. Spark plasma sintering facilities can be used as well for heat-treating powders and compact materials. In this study, an assembly without the upper punch has been used for heat treatment. It has been shown that annealing results depend on geometric features of the position of the sample in the graphite die. In a layer of a material heat-treated in a die without its upper punch, graded structures can be obtained. An example of the annealing of detonation coatings demonstrates the possibility of producing layers on substrates with compositions similar to those of compact materials produced by the spark plasma sintering of the starting powders.