History of sintering: empirical phase

Sintering is well established as a component fabrication approach. It has been applied to ceramics for 26 000 years. Metallic sintering is more recent, and cemented carbides are a relatively modern application. The science of sintering started to emerge in the 1940s and matured in the middle 1980s. Previously, empirical approaches developed many important products and concepts, ranging from porcelain dinnerware to automotive structural components, and included platinum crucibles, tungsten lamp filaments, cemented carbide drawing dies, bronze bearings and bonded abrasives. This article outlines how these products arose in an empirical trial and error approach before conceptualisations of sintering theory.