Sintering Behaviour of Waste Olivine and Olivine/Alumina Blends

The sintering behaviour of several green compacts made with olivine or olivine/alumina powder blends has been examined. To this goal, powders were attrition milled, uniaxially pressed into specimens and air sintered at temperatures ranging from 1100 to 1300 °C. The resulting samples were characterized by water absorption, shrinkage, phase composition and density. Compositions containing 5%, 10% and 20% Al(2)O(3) have a sintering behaviour similar to that of olivine alone, reaching low residual porosity when fired at 1300 °C. Conversely, the composition containing 40% Al(2)O(3) displays an almost flat shrinkage profile and maintains high residual porosity in the examined temperature range.