TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - Preferred Method: (2) is optionally carried out to melt the binder so that it flows around the sinterable particles to close pores in the mixture then inducing foaming. The flowable mixture is subject to successively increasing temperatures to carry out at least the shaping, heating, and sintering steps. The temperatures are increased in a stepwise manner. The powder is heated at 40-300 (75-200)degreesC to melt the binder. The sintering is carried out at 30-90 (45-75)% of the melting temperature of the sinterable material. The binder is solidified with the aid of a curing agent. The shaping is carried out by molding, deposition, or lamination. Pressure is applied to the powder mixture before or during heating the mixture. The organic binder is blended with the other components of the mixture by dry mixing or milling, or by mixing the binder in suspension or solution in liquid. The liquid is removed by the application of heat or vacuum.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Components: The binder is a thermoset resin or a thermoplastic polymer. The thermoplastic polymer is cured with the aid of a curing agent or by a cross-linking treatment by irradiation or light exposure.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - METALLURGY - Preferred Composition: The sinterable particles include 40-90 wt.%    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CERAMICS AND GLASS - Preferred Composition: The sinterable particles include 10-60 wt.% ceramic particles, metal particles and/or coated particles.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Composition: The mixture comprises 20-70 wt.% binder and 0.5-3 wt.% foaming agent. It further comprises 0.01-5 wt.% additional binder to minimize segregation and dusting and improve the flowability of the mixture. The foaming agent is a solid, a liquid embedded or in solution in the binder, and/or a gas embedded or in solution in the binder. The precursor composition of the powder mixture further comprises a lubricant to ease shaping, molding, or demolding. It may also comprise flowing agents to improve the flowability of the mixture. EXAMPLE - Nickel foams were produced by dry mixing nickel powder (70.18 wt.%), phenolic resin binder (29.32 wt.%), and p-toluene sulfonyl hydrazide foaming agent (0.5 wt.%). After mixing, the powder was poured into a mold and foamed at 150degreesC in air. After foaming, the material was submitted to the debinding step in a tube furnace at 500degreesC for 4 hours in a dry air stream. The specimens were sintered in argon-10% hydrogen for 2 hours at 750degreesC, and were machined from plates and tubes after sintering. The nickel foam had a density of 0.83 g/cm3, the loose sintered powder had a density of 2.82 g/cm3, and the density of the bulk nickel had 8.9 g/cm3.