Advances in Powder Metal Sintering Technology clipped from Google - 5/2012Powder metallurgy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

clipped from Google - 5/2012Sintering Overview: Abbott Furnace Company

clipped from Google - 5/2012Technical Papers: Powdered Metal Sintering, Industrial Furnaces ...www.abbottfurnace.comwww.abbottfurnace.com/technology/technical-papers.html

clipped from Google - 5/2012Controlling Properties of Sintered Steel Powder Metal Components ...www.airproducts.comwww.airproducts.com/~/media/.../controlling-properties-330-06-077.ashx

I've worked with belt furnaces for the past couple of years and have had to do research on many applications of the equipment such as solar cells and breifly on this. The temperatures and atmosphere content you use is based on your part and should be based on your testing. In pressed compacts curing, the basic stages are preheating, sintering, and a cooling zone. In the preheating zone, an oxygen atmosphere is needed to react with a hydrogen atmosphere to prevent carbon formation. In the sintering stage, a ratio of hydrogen and moisture content needs to be monitored so the surface oxides of the part are reduced helping create better bonding characteristics in the final part. The cooling stage is for, well, cooling! And to prevent any oxidation that occurs by using an inert gas within the muffle.

Check some links and it doesn't hurt to call them
http://www.beltfurnaces.com/
http://www.uptonindustries.com/belt-furnaces.php