[Image above] Credit: Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; YouTube
Last year, we reported here on Ceramic Tech Today about a cold sintering process developed at Penn State University that could reduce the energy needed to sinter ceramics and other materials.
By reducing typical sintering temperatures from >1000ºC to <300ºC, the breakthrough process offers the potential to both increase energy efficiency and drastically reduce manufacturing costs—a win–win for manufacturers and consumers alike.
And Penn State researchers aren’t the only ones—other groups are working to develop to the incredible potential of cold sintering, too.
Low temperature processing is a hot trend, and for good reason. Reducing the energy requirement of traditionally energy-intensive processes can go a long way to reducing the frighteningly negative impacts the bulging human population is rapidly having on our planet.
Cold sintering doesn’t compromise the quality, but requires a fraction of the energy and time required to manufacture materials as compared to traditional sintering techniques. Hear more about the possibilities of the cold sintering process from ACerS member Clive Randall in the Penn State video below.
Credit: Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; YouTube