  One of the main challenges of the sintering of sterling silver is the
phenomenon of swelling causing de-densification and a considerable reduction of
the sintering kinetics. This swelling phenomenon opposes sintering and it needs
to be addressed by a well-controlled processing atmosphere. In the present
study, the pressure-less sintering behavior of sterling silver is investigated
in air, argon, and vacuum. A specially modified spark plasma sintering mold is
designed to study the pressure-less sintering of sterling silver in a high
vacuum environment. The conducted analysis is extended to the new constitutive
equations of sintering enabling the prediction of the swelling phenomena and
the identification of the internal equivalent pressure that opposes the
sintering.
