NB INSTRUMENT
U-FAST (SPS) MASS
Industrial-scale advanced SPS sintering — pulsed-current densification that turns powders into dense, fine-grained components in minutes rather than hours.
Spark plasma sintering, engineered for scale.
Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) — also known as FAST, U-FAST, PECS or P²C — consolidates powders by passing pulsed direct current through a graphite tool and the material itself while uniaxial pressure is applied.
Joule heating is the primary mechanism. Heat is generated directly inside the tooling and sample, enabling very fast, uniform heating and short process cycles.
Faster cycles. Finer structures.
Compared with conventional furnace sintering, pulsed-current sintering offers a fundamentally different process window.
Current, pressure and control — in one cycle.
- Powder is loaded into a graphite die set between two punches
- Uniaxial pressure is applied under vacuum or protective atmosphere
- Pulsed DC current heats tooling and sample directly by Joule heating
- Rapid densification preserves nanostructures, with grain sizes of 10–100 nm retained
Materials that conventional sintering struggles with.
Advanced ceramics
Dense structural and technical ceramics with controlled microstructure.
Metals & alloys
Fast consolidation of metallic powders and hard-to-sinter alloys.
Metal matrix composites
Composite materials combining metallic and ceramic phases.
Nanostructured materials
Short cycles limit grain growth to preserve nanoscale features.
Functional materials
Thermoelectric, magnetic and other functional material development.
Diffusion bonding
Joining of similar and dissimilar materials under controlled conditions.
Technology information referenced from GeniCore. Detailed U-FAST MASS configuration and specifications are available on request from NB Instrument.
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