Composition materials and nanostructures produced by high-voltage powder consolidation process

The existing high-voltage powder consolidation process consumes energy from the huge condensate accumulated on high-voltage electrodes following a massive discharge during the compaction process by applying an electrical current. The value of the current is the main driving force of material consolidation, since the higher the temperature mode the sintering material is in, the higher the current should be. The locations of the electrodes identify the direction of the current, which goes only one way as instigated by the electrode arrangement. This particular feature is a main disadvantage of the process and provides a certain limitation for its future commercial applications. An application of outside electric and electromagnetic fields for powder consolidation with a combination of the mechanical load could be an interesting feature increasing the process performance. In this case, the discharge process could be more controllable in some locations of the sintering material. Consolidation would be produced through multiple discharges with pulsing regimes and could be repeated many times. As a result, sintered parts would have a full theoretical density, which does not depend on material properties. Moreover, the design of equipment allows performance of energy spreading in different directions and different places, which can dramatically increase the quality of the product (compacted materials) along with the quality of complex parts. Such flexibility presents an opportunity for anisotropy changes during the process.