Abstract
This article presents an approach to fabricate microcomponents using multiphysical field sintering technique. In this study, 316 L stainless steel powders were sintered at different heating rates and sintering temperatures to produce cylindrical compacts with diameters of 1.0 mm and heights of 1.0 mm. The effects of heating rates and sintering temperatures on sintering densification were studied. It shows that both heating rate and sintering temperature directly affect the densification of sintered compacts, and that the electric field not only provides Joule heat for a compact, but also makes a great contribution to atom diffusion migration, which leads to compact densification. Multiphysical field coupling combines the coupling of stress field, temperature field, and electric field, and these fields work reciprocally rather than independently. Sintered compact with relative density of 99.20% is fabricated at low sintering temperature of 900°C, short sintering of 6 min.