Spark plasma sintering (SPS) and conventional vacuum sintering (VS) wereemployed to fabricate ultrafine Ti(C,N)-based cermets. The shrinkage behavior, microstracture, andporosity and mechanical properties of the samples fabricated by SPS were compared with those of thesamples sintered by VS using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, universal testingmachine, and rockwell tester. The results are as follows: (1) The shrinkage process occurred mainlyin the range of 1000-1300 deg C during the VS process, and only a 0.2 percent linear shrinkage ratioappeared below 800 deg C; during the SPS process, a 60 percent dimensional change occurred below800 deg C as a result of pressure action. (2) By utilizing the SPS technique, it is difficult forobtaining fully dense Ti(C,N)-based cermets. Due to the much existence of pores and un-combinedcarbon, the mechanical properties of the sintered samples by SPS are inferior to sintered ones byVS. (3) grain size of the samples sintered by SPS is still below 0.5 urn, but not by VS; because oflow sintering temperature, there are no typical core/rim structures formed in the sintered samplesby SPS1; the main microstructures of the sintered samples by SPS2 are a white core/grey shellstructure, whereas by VS show a typical black core/grey shell structure.
