Overview of conventional and unconventional sintering methods

Abstract Sintering is a thermally activated process by definition, in which a compact powder is transformed into a rigid body through mass-transport events on the atomic scale. This process is fundamentally complex since many factors are involved, including microstructural features like chemical composition, shape, particle size, and degree of agglomeration and including thermodynamic factors like temperature, time, atmosphere, pressure, and rate of heating and cooling (Rahaman, 2003; Biesuz and Sglavo, 2019; Dancer, 2016; German, n.d.-a; Borges et al., 2018; Tong et al., 2010; Zhou et al., 2019; Palareti et al., 2016; Kamp et al., 2012; Wang et al., n.d., 2019; Bonollo et al., 1991; Zhang et al., 2017a; Naga et al., 2016 [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] ). These factors have a strong influence on the physical characteristics of material obtained from the sintering process. Hence, this chapter endeavors to summarize current progress in the understanding of conventional and unconventional sintering methods. The main difference among the innovative sintering techniques is the heating mode employed. Therefore, these approaches are key to the development of novel materials with entirely new and tailored properties for many applications of interesting.