The use of microwave energy to process materials has gained increasing importance in many industrial applications due to its potential advantages over conventional heating methods. The work reported here consisted of fast hybrid microwave sintering of ceramic materials requiring low sintering temperatures for densification. The sintered materials showing high dielectric losses were ZnO-CuO varistors and ferrite, while those presenting sharp increases in dielectric loss with rising temperatures, i.e., low dielectric loss at ambient temperature and high loss at elevated temperatures, were porcelain bodies. A susceptor was used as an auxiliary heating agent. The results indicate that the sintering system developed here can be used efficiently for the rapid, uniform sintering of all the ceramics in question. The microwave sintering involved similar and shorter times than those reported in the literature for fast microwave sintering of ceramics.
microwaves; sintering; ceramics
