Title: Materials Engineer - Sintering Specialist

Company: Thinkmetal Pvt Ltd

Location: Chennai, India (Onsite)

Job Type: Full-Time

Experience Required: 2-4 years (Freshers with strong fundamentals can apply)

Who Are We?

ThinkMetal focuses on advanced materials innovation for manufacturing,with a strong emphasis on metal and alloy systems for additive manufacturing. We operate at the intersection of materials science, hardware, and process engineering, building integrated solutions that translate material capabilities into scalable, production-ready systems. Our work spans metal and alloy development, feedstock engineering, and manufacturing setup design, enabling high performance, reliable, and repeatable industrial processes.

We focus on taking materials from lab scale understanding to real world manufacturing deployment, particularly for metal based applications. As part of the team, you will work in a highly hands-on environment with direct exposure to end-to-end product and process development, from concept and experimentation to production implementation.

Role Overview

We are seeking a sintering process expert for the development of mainly sintering and heat treatment cycles for metals, alloys, and ceramics. In this R&D-focused; role, you will design thermal cycles, define temperature profiles and atmosphere conditions, and establish robust processing for new and existing materials. You will validate process outcomes through material characterization, troubleshoot thermal processing defects.

Key Responsibilities:

- Develop and optimize sintering cycles (debinding, ramp rates, hold temperatures, cooling profiles) for metallic and ceramic material systems.
- Design and execute heat treatment processes tailored to material and application requirements.
- Establish and maintain process parameters of sintering to achieve target density, microstructure, hardness, and dimensional stability.
- Specify furnace atmospheres (vacuum, inert, reducing,



hydrogen/nitrogen/argon mixtures) and setpoints for each material system.
- Review furnace run data and logs to verify cycles were executed within specification.
- Troubleshoot process deviations - oxidation, decarburisation, incomplete densification, warping, cracking and drive corrective actions.
- Advise on furnace capability, pyrometry, atmosphere systems, and future equipment selection.
- Monitoring of furnace, thermocouple calibration, temperature uniformity surveys, leak checks, and atmosphere integrity.
- Run design-of-experiments (DoE) trials to establish robust processing windows.
- Interpret microstructures and correlate them with cycle parameters and material behaviour.
- Lead failure analysis and root-cause investigations on thermally processed parts.
- Prepare technical reports summarising trial results and process recommendations.
- Follow and enforce safe handling procedures for high-temperature equipment and process gases (especially hydrogen and other flammable/asphyxiant atmospheres).
- Perform or coordinate basic characterisation: density measurement, hardness testing, optical microscopy, sample preparation (mounting, grinding, polishing, etching etc.).
- Maintain process records in line with quality system requirements.
- Contribute to the materials and process R&D; roadmap, including evaluation of new material systems.

Skills Sets required:

Technical Skills:

- Thorough knowledge on Material Science
- Sintering & Heat Treatment
- Thermal Analysis & Polymer Degradation
- Metal Additive Manufacturing
- Materials Testing & Characterization
- Process Optimization




- Quality Inspection
- GD&T;
- Quality control
- Root Cause Analysis

Soft Skills:

- Problem Solving
- Analytical Thinking
- Team Collaboration
- Technical Documentation
- Troubleshooting
- Critical thinking
- Presentation Skills

Qualification:

- B.E./B.Tech/M.E./M.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Thermal Engineering or a related discipline.
- 2–4 years of experience in sintering, heat treatment, or thermal processing (powder metallurgy, MIM, technical ceramics, or additive manufacturing post-processing

preferred)
- Working knowledge of furnace types, atmosphere control systems, and temperature
- measurement/calibration
- Understanding of phase transformations, densification mechanisms, and
- structure–property relationships in metals and ceramics
- Familiarity with basic metallography and characterisation techniques.

Preferred Skills:

- Experience in Sintering process.
- Experience with vacuum furnaces and hydrogen atmosphere processing.
- Exposure to advanced characterisation (SEM, XRD, dilatometry, TGA/DSC).
- Experience developing debinding/sintering cycles for MIM, ceramic injection moulding, or 3D-printed parts.
- Knowledge of relevant standards for characterisation and thermal processing.
- Experience with DoE and statistical process control tools.
- Basic CAD and mechanical understanding of extrusion equipment.
- Familiarity with AI/ML concepts for process monitoring and optimization.
- Experience in developing SOPs, process documentation, and technical reports.

What We Offer:

- Quick-paced, innovation-driven work environment.
- Market-standard compensation with performance-based incentives.
- Long-term technical growth opportunities.
- Opportunity to grow laterally across R&D;, production, materials, and product development.

How to Apply

Please send your resume to: ? [email protected]

📌 Materials Engineer - Sintering Specialist (Chennai)
🏢 ThinkMetal
📍 Chennai