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 aim, 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% Al2O3 have a sintering behaviour similar to that of olivine alone, reaching low residual porosity when fired at 1300 °C. Conversely, the composition containing 40% Al2O3 displays an almost flat shrinkage profile and maintains high residual porosity in the examined temperature range.