The application of the heating microscope technique for studying the shrinkage behavior of ceramic and glass powder compacts during sintering has been reported by Boccaccini and Trusty [14].
The heating microscope has its origin in a series of optical instruments developed to study the melting behavior of coal ashes as reviewed by Radmacher [10].
Sintering studies using the heating microscope's potential are applied for understanding this phenomenon.
The sintering process was traced by heating microscope and the characteristics were analyzed by XRD, SEM-EDS and TAM Air.
The dimensional changes of the ash pellet namely height, corner angle, area, and shape factor were also measured from the stored images of the specimen by the built-in software - Picture Analysis Software - supplied using the Leica heating microscope.
The MSCs were constructed, for BTS2.5 and BTS15 graded layers in FGMs, using shrinkage data obtained by a heating microscope during sintering at four constant heating rates, 2, 5, 10 and 20 °/min.
In heating microscope, the sample specimen in the form of pellets is subjected to heating.
Cells were imaged either at 30°C, or 36.8°C by heating the microscope objective with a flexible resistive heater (Omega, Stamford, CT) utilizing an on off controller (Minco, Minneapolis, MN), which maintained the temperature at the objective within ±0.1°C as readout by a 100 Ω platinum thermistor (Minco).
Thermal expansion coefficients and glass characteristic temperatures are determined by the dilatometer and Leitz heat microscope methods.
Subsequent electron microscope investigations of chromatin structure showed strong alterations in the ultrastructure of the nucleus caused mainly by the heat denaturation step.
