Conclusion

Although the microwave heating sintering process has been in use for some forty years, this technology is still not really used in the industrial sector. Microwave ovens suitable for high temperatures (> 1,200°C) are available on the market, but these are most often used by academic or industrial laboratories, with the aim of evaluating the technology from the point of view of energy gain and particular potential microstructures. The many studies that have looked into the sintering trajectories of ceramics using microwave heating have not systematically revealed a radically different trajectory from those observed during conventional sintering. Nevertheless, the high heating speeds offered by microwave heating have already made it possible to refine certain microstructures of sintered ceramics, potentially shifting sintering trajectories towards finer microstructures. Because of its selective...