Effect Of Sintering Time On Non-pressure Sintering Of Pure Aluminum-Rare Earth Oxide Mixed Powder

Aluminum (Al) is very difficult to sinter because of the stable oxide layer on its surface. Recently we found that sinterability can be dramatically improved by adding a small amount of rare earth oxide (REO). The relative density of over 95% can be achieved by sintering of Al-REO mixed powder even without pressurization for 1 hour. Similar densities were obtained at longer sintering up to 48 hours. However, the effect of sintering time on the sintered microstructure of the mixed powder is unclear. Therefore, in this report, the change in the sintered microstructure of Al-REO mixed powder with sintering time will be discussed.