Evaluation of Grain Growth Using Master Sintering Curve and Dilatometry Data for Binder Jetted Parts

Metal Binder jetting (BJ) is an additive manufacturing technology that requires a series of post-processing steps to obtain the final product, with sintering being one of the important steps. Multiple coupled phenomena such as densification, coarsening, grain growth, and evolution of microstructure, influence sintering. Grain growth during sintering impacts the final mechanical properties and the densification of a material. The most common method to evaluate the grain growth behaviour is conducting interrupted-sintering analysis followed by microscopy which is a time-consuming process. This work intends to estimate the grain growth during sintering from the shrinkage data obtained from dilatometry. The concept of integrating a master sintering curve (MSC) into the Skorohod-Olevsky-based model is explored to predict grain growth and sintering behaviour. The main aim is to evaluate the adaptability of this approach to BJ.