Abstract: An apparatus for forming a sinterable compact of a powder comprises a pair of respective shafts displaceable toward one another by the action of respective cams and serving to displace opposing ram members to compact a powder between them. Respective plates carrying the ram members are entrained with the shafts and are displaced in the opposite direction by respective pairs of pneumatic cylinders. The rams are thereupon displaced at high rate against the precompacted powder by energizing a disk-shaped coil which repels electrodynamically the plate carrying the rams.