SINTERING DEVICE

Abstract

A sintering device comprising a tray including a tray part in which metallic workpieces to be sintered (not represented here) are placed during the sintering operation and a base part in which the tray is located including gas-flowing holes and side wall extended upwardly from the edge of the upper surface of the base part, and a sintering chamber including side wall extended downwardly from the upper surface for covering the tray part and at least one gas flow passage between the inner surface thereof and outer surface of the side wall of the tray part;

wherein the tray part and base part are integrally formed; wherein the base part includes at the lower portion through holes in horizontal and longitudinal directions for gas inflowing and discharging, a hole at crossover point of the through holes for penetrating the center portion of the base plate and extended to the exterior, and wherein the lower end of the sinter chamber is disposed on the lowered and stepped surface of the base part and the stepped portion formed in the middle of the side wall of the sintering chamber is supported by the upper end of the side wall of the tray for allowing the gas to flow.

Claims

1. A sintering device comprising a tray including a tray part in which metallic workpieces to be sintered (not represented here) are placed during the sintering operation and a base part in which the tray is located including gas-flowing holes and side wall extended upwardly from the edge of the upper surface of the base part, and a sintering chamber including side wall extended downwardly from the upper surface for covering the tray part and at least one gas flow passage between the inner surface thereof and outer surface of the side wall of the tray part; wherein the tray part and base part are integrally formed; wherein the base part includes at the lower portion through holes in horizontal and longitudinal directions for gas inflowing and discharging, a hole at crossover point of the through holes for penetrating the center portion of the base plate and extended to the exterior, and wherein the lower end of the sinter chamber is disposed on the lowered and stepped surface of the base part and the stepped portion formed in the middle of the side wall of the sintering chamber is supported by the upper end of the side wall of the tray for allowing the gas to flow.

2. The sintering device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a cylindrical member for the prevention of oxidization is disposed on the base part between the side walls of the tray part and sintering chamber to prevent the oxygen contacting the metallic workpiece.

3. The sintering device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the cylindrical member is formed in a sheet made from titanium or titanium allow.

4. The sintering device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inner diameter of the sidewall of the sintering chamber is bigger than the outer diameter of the side wall of the tray part to form a cylindrical space as a gas flow passage between the side walls of the tray part and sintering chamber, and the cylindrical space is communicated with the through holes in horizontal and longitudinal directions formed at the base part.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The above objects, other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0018] FIG. 1 is a cross-section view of the conventional exploded sintering device in an exploded state which was filed by the present applicant;

[0019] FIG. 2 is a cross-section view of the assembled sintering device in FIG. 1;

[0020] FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the improved sintering device according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, in which a tray part and a base part are integrally formed;

[0021] FIG. 4 is a partial cross section view of the sintering device in FIG. 3;

[0022] FIG. 5 is a cross section view of the assembled sintering device in FIG. 4; and

[0023] FIG. 6 is a cross section view of the variant embodiment of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The present invention will be hereafter described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0025] The sintering device according to the first embodiment of the present invention FIGS. 3, 4, 5 includes a tray comprising a tray part 330 and a base part 331 integrally formed therewith and a sintering chamber 340 covering the tray part 330, the upper portion of the tray part 330 being opened. That is, the tray part and the base part are different from a tray and a base plate in the FIGS. 1 and 2 in that the tray part and base part are integrally formed in one piece.

[0026] The tray part 330 is provided with a cylindrical side wall 332 formed upwardly on the bottom surface to form an inner space for accommodating workpieces therein and the base part 331 is formed with through holes 334 in horizontal and longitudinal directions for gas inflowing and discharging, and a hole 335 at crossover point of the through holes 334 for penetrating the center portion of the base plate and extended to the exterior. Also, a lowered and stepped surface 333 is formed at the edge portion of the base part 331.

[0027] The through holes 334 work as a gas passage for inflowing the argon gas and discharging the residual gas in the inner space of the tray part and the hole 335 works as an gas inlet and an gas outlet connected to the gas supply and discharging means provided in the conventional sintering device.

[0028] The sintering chamber 340 is mounted on the lowered and stepped surface of the base part for covering the tray part 330 and is provided with a cylindrical side wall 342 formed in the downward direction and a stepped portion 341 in the middle of the side wall to increase the inner diameter at the lower portion of the side wall.

[0029] When the sintering chamber 340 is mounted for covering the tray part 330, the lower end of the side wall 342 seats on the stepped surface 333 of the base part and the stepped portion 341 of the side wall 342 seats on the upper end of the side wall of the tray part 330, so that gas may follow through a fine gap between them.

[0030] The inner diameter of the side wall 342 of the sintering chamber 340 is bigger than that of the side wall 332 of the tray part 330, so that a ring shaped space 336 is formed as a gas passage between the side walls 332 and 334. The space 336 is connected to the horizontal and longitudinal through holes 334 formed at the base part.

[0031] The argon gas supplied by (not shown) a gas supplying apparatus may flow into the ring shaped space 336 between the side walls 332 and 334 through the hole 335 and through holes 334 formed at the base part and the residual gas in the inner space of the tray part may be discharged via the same gas flowing paths mentioned above.

[0032] In this embodiment, the tray part and the base part are integrate in one piece, where the hole 335 and through holes 334 are formed at the base part 331 for the gas inflow and discharging and the stepped surface 333 of the base part is formed at the base part 331 for mounting the sintering chamber 340, so that the sintering device may be compacted in virtue of the decrease of the number of parts and the manufacturing cost may be decreased. Accordingly, the sintering device according to the invention is improved as compared with the prior sintering device in which the tray and the base plate are separated, a spacer should be formed at the bottom for a space as a gas passage.

[0033] Referring to FIG. 6, the sintering device according to the variant embodiment of the invention includes a cylindrical member 250 provided between the side wall of the tray part 330 and the side wall of the sintering chamber 340 for the prevention of oxidization. The cylindrical member 250 has a diameter which is bigger than that of tray part and smaller than that of the sintering chamber, so that the cylinder member may be arranged on the base part 331 and between the side walls of the tray part and sintering chamber. At this time, it is desirable that the cylinder member is separated from the side wall of the tray part 330 not to prevent the inflow and discharging of the gas.

[0034] Accordingly, the argon gas supplied by the gas supplying apparatus may be flowed in the space 336 between the side walls 332 and 334 through the hole 335 and flows in the inner space of the tray part 330, thereby urging the residual gas in the inner space of the tray part to be discharged and the argon atmosphere is formed in the inner space of the tray part. Therefore, in the sintering operation, the oxygen remained in the space 336 may be first contacted with the cylindrical member 250 and the oxidation of the metallic workpiece may be prevented.

[0035] The cylindrical member 250 is preferably formed in a sheet made from titanium or titanium allow and is first oxidized by the residual oxygen in the space 336 to prevent from the metallic workpiece to oxidation. Accordingly, the quality of the sintered workpiece may be improved.

[0036] The forgoing embodiments are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teachings can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.