The Use of Transient Liquid Phases in Powder Metallurgy

Liquid phase sintering is most widely known in its variant „persistent liquid phase sintering“, in which case the liquid phase is present in constant quantity during the entire isothermal period. There is however also the variant „transient liquid phase“, the melt being present only for a short period in the first stage of sintering and then solidifying through diffusional processes. In this presentation, the preconditions for both variants are presented, in particular with regard to the starting materials. The benefits of transient liquid phases are described, both for sintering – to accelerate material transport, contact formation and microstructural homogenization compared to standard solid state sintering – and for transient liquid phase bonding, a brazing variant which is an attractive method for joining porous powder compacts. Both techniques are highly useful in particular for ferrous powder metallurgy precision components, etc.