Development of a microwave dilatometer for generating master sintering curves

Master sintering curves were developed to provide a viable database for industries for predicting the sintering behavior of ceramics. A dilatometer is required to construct these curves. Due to the non-availability of dilatometers that use microwave energy as the heating source, a push-rod microwave dilatometer was developed. A TE103 single-mode microwave cavity was altered to incorporate heating elements and a dial gauge. The heating elements were used to determine the sensitivity of the experimental setup. The validity of the measurement and the calibration procedure was verified by measuring the expansion of the following materials: sapphire, alumina, copper and fused quartz. The experimental setup was able to determine the coefficient of thermal expansion to an accuracy of +/- 3%. Microwave heating was then used to construct a master sintering curve for sintering cubic-zirconia.