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Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Large Scale Spark Plasma Sintering of Silicon Carbide Plate Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle... Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Large Scale Spark Plasma Sintering of Silicon Carbide Plate Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Spark Plasma Sintering of Silicon Carbide Plate technology. Background: Silicon carbide materials are useful in many applications such as armor, solid state semiconductor materials, and various nuclear applications. Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a method of sintering a powdered material by directing electric current in pulses to a powder loaded in a die. Small scale SPS of silicon carbide conventionally uses sintering aids and other additives to facilitate sintering of the silicon carbide material. However, as the size of the structure increases, it is increasingly difficult to form the silicon carbide structure to near full theoretical density by SPS. As size increases, it is difficult to uniformly distribute heat to the powder, which may cause the structure to exhibit nonuniform properties across a cross-section. Other methods of fabricating silicon carbide structures are time consuming, consumer more power than SPS, and are expensive. Description: Researchers at INL have developed a large-scale spark plasma sintering process. While small scale SPS has been accomplished, the novelty of this process lies in the tooling and knowledge developed to address the scale up issues and fabricate a viable armor tile. This process utilizes a graphite material that has minimal thermal expansion characteristics to reduce the susceptibility to cracking under high mechanical stress. To minimize the pressures required to press out the product from the dies, a novel axial profile was developed in which a tapered wall alleviates contact easing the process of press out. At high current densities, silicon carbide decomposes and forms a silicon-rich liquid. This liquid can be utilized for an in-situ sintering process that can produce high density material. Applications: The immediate use for this process is the production of high-quality armor tiles. However, there could be other potential applications with additional research. Any field which needs dense silicon carbide products, especially those with complex configurations, may have use for this technology. Advantages: Because of the in-situ Si-liquid generation observed in the silicon carbide, the SPS process enables fabrication of dense material at low pressures. This means that manufacturing curved and more complex shapes becomes feasible. Additionally, due to its application of the electrical energy directly to the sample and die, SPS is more energy efficient than traditional furnaces. The SPS process also makes material that is harder than that produced by other methods. Impact: This process is significantly faster and has the potential to create lower-cost products on the mass scale. The results are time and money savings. Development: Currently in pilot scale. The tiles have been fabricated using equipment similar to the large-scale equipment. IP Status: Multiple US Patents, No. 10,207,956 “Methods of Forming Silicon Carbide by Spark Plasma Sintering,” No. 10,364,191 “Methods of Forming Articles Including Silicon Carbide by Spark Plasma Sintering,” BEA Docket No. BA-799. INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Jon Cook at jonathan.cook@inl.gov.