I'm not sure what you are actually trying to make here. However, those temps. seem high, but I'm not familiar with this material. Perhaps after sintering, you could try annealing, somewhere around 650C. I think your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of this material and get a facts sheet.

I wish I could be more help, but what you are doing is far from main stream.

What the heck are you trying to make anyway?

Thanks for your help. I want to determine whether the hardness of the material will be increased or not after sintering has been conducted. Do you think this kind of material is not suitable for sintering?

well, alumina melts at 2050, for it to sinter it needs pressure and probably a higher temperature. With too low a temp you end up with too few interdiffused points of contact = brittle.

Alumina is very strong.

They have a process now whereby they take very pure alumina as particles below 1/4 wave of light and add a little contaminant (nitrogen)that makes small bits of a different crystal order and heat and crush it under extreme pressure in a vacuum to make strike plates for bullet proof windows. The squeeze in a vacuum makes it into a clear plate and the contaminant ends up as terminators for any cracks that start = very tough stuff indeed. It has a slight milky look as there is a small % above 1/4 wave and they scatter light like a drop of milk in water, but if you pay a premium you get very clear ones. The slight milkyness is good enough for bullet proof glass and lots cheaper. It would make very good full bullet proof windows if you used 4 layers = very costly, as the process is slow and requires carefully prepared ingredients to have a tough, clear material in which a crack cannot spread.

Diamond would be better = ever more $$..

http://www.surmet.com/docs/Product_sheet_ALON.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_oxynitride

ZP 102 is a plaster based powder, probably mixed/coated with a polymer to make it less hygroscopic. Plus your Z printer binder, if this is the way you use it.

These will certainly contaminate and outgas during sintering.

Alumina sintering is in itself quite a science, from the volume of publications and patents out there.

Based on the later references article, you may have a promising idea requiring quite a lot of R&D.

Did you try pyrolysis of your parts prior to sintering?

What atmosphere and pressure do you use for sintering?

Or play with the powder ratio?

Do you need to use ZP102?

Did you try sintering alumina alone to see the effects of the ZP102?

Ref:

Retention of nanostructure in aluminum oxide by very rapid sintering at 1150 °C

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Author(s):
Subhash H. Risbud, Chien-Hua Shan, Amiya K. Mukherjee, Moon J. Kim, J.S. Bow, Richard A. Holl

Aluminum oxide powders doped with MgO (300 to 500 nm) were sintered to almost theoretical density within just 10–15 min at 1150 °C using a plasma-activated sintering process based on charging the loosely filled powders with an electric discharge prior to densification by resistance heating. The microstructure of the consolidated disks was examined by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and revealed excellent grain to grain contact with virtually no grain growth and structurally clean grain boundaries.

Member Price: $20.00; Non-Member Price: $20.00
Volume: 10
#: 2
Pages: 237-239
DOI: 10.1557/JMR.1995.0237