Abstract
In earlier work the authors examined the sintering of Ti–Ni alloys by means of dilatometry of mixed elemental powders. Some notable differences were observed when heat treatments were carried out using a vacuum tube furnace rather than the dilatometer: higher sintered density was achieved due to a combination of lower heating rate and lower residual pressure, and swelling during liquid phase sintering was greatly reduced. This observation is consistent with the idea that gas pressure within closed pores causes swelling during liquid phase sintering and retardation of shrinkage in solid state sintering. In addition to the results of measurements of density and open and closed porosity as a function of Ni content and sintering temperature, macrographs and optical micrographs of the sintered compacts are presented, and the effects of heating rate and compaction pressure are described.