Electron Beam Sintering of Zirconia Ceramics

Abstract

The work demonstrated the sintering of zirconium dioxide ceramics by means of an electron beam produced by a plasma-cathode e-beam source operating at fore-vacuum pressure. The sintered ceramics consist of tetragonal-modified zirconium dioxide with grain size from 0.7 to 10 micrometers, depending on the sintering conditions. At constant sintering temperature, the density of the material and its grain size depend on the integrated energy injected into the sintered material by the electron beam.