In Iron and Steel industries, sintering process is used in producing agglomerates either as iron ore sinter or as heat hardened iron ore pellets. It is also used extensively used in producing ceramic or metallic powder compacts as well as in additive manufacturing processes. The thermal excursion of the green powder compact determines the extent of sintering and its subsequent evolution of desired properties. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the sintering phenomena for a single green compact. Sintering phenomena of iron ore pellets – magnetite and hematite are investigated in this study using two types of dilatometers. Optical Dilatometer has been used to study in-situ intrinsic sintering kinetics of pellets experimentally at different temperatures, and compared with that of widely used Push Rod Dilatometer. Unlike optical dilatometer, push rod dilatometer uses a load to keep the rod in contact with the compact. Interestingly, it has been found that the intrinsic sintering characteristics changes with the load imposed. These findings can also be extended to other materials manufactured by sintering phenomenon. Understanding on sintering mechanisms of material compacts with and without load will help in evaluating kinetic parameters considering the conditions compact encounter in further applications, and design accordingly.