  Graphite creep has high importance for applications using high pressures (100
MPa) and temperatures close to 2000 {\textdegree}C. In particular, the new
flash spark plasma sintering process (FSPS) is highly sensitive to graphite
creep when applied to ultra-high temperature materials such as silicon carbide.
In this flash process taking only a few seconds, the graphite tooling reaches
temperatures higher than 2000 {\textdegree}C resulting in its irreversible
deformation. The graphite tooling creep prevents the flash spark plasma
sintering process from progressing further. In this study, a finite element
model is used to determine FSPS tooling temperatures. In this context, we
explore the graphite creep onset for temperatures above 2000 {\textdegree}C and
for high pressures. Knowing the graphite high temperature limit, we modify the
FSPS process so that the sintering occurs outside the graphite creep range of
temperatures/pressures. 95 % dense silicon carbide compacts are obtained in
about 30 s using the optimized FSPS.
