Significant advances in mechanical testing for hard materials are discussed in this paper. There are three specific areas that are covered. In the measurement of fracture toughness factors such as the control of slow crack growth to produce strating cracks, and evaluating reproducibility and repeatability of tests have been recently examined. The miniaturization of tests reduces the amount of material that is used in testing, improves the throughput of tests, and also improves cost effectiveness. New techniques such as stepwise testing and micro scratch testing have contributed to significant additions to the knowledge of the wear mechanisms that operate in these materials.

The present study describes the wear and mechanical behaviour of carbide composites in cyclic loading applications (blanking of sheet metal). Adhesive wear as well as fatigue endurance were tested, complemented by XRD studies. It was found that the blanking performance of a carbide composite is controlled by its resistance to adhesion wear and fatigue sensitivity. XRD studies revealed that fatigue damage is preceded by plastic strain in both phases of the composites

In recent years, PCB drills with smaller diameters less than 0.1 mm are used and thus there are growing needs for ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. However, ultra-fine WC powder usually causes extraordinary grain growth during sintering which weakens mechanical strength of ultra-fine grained cemented carbides. So we examined several kinds of WC powders to make new ultra-fine grained cemented carbides having superior performance. We found that direct carburized WC powder is very good as a WC raw material. The PCB drills made of the developed ultra-fine grained cemented carbides have higher hardness, toughness and stiffness than conventional ones.

To test the correlation between grain shape and growth behavior we prepared WC-TiC-Co samples with rounded (Ti, W)C grains and faceted WC grains. The growth of rounded (Ti, W)C grains was normal. In contrast, the growth of faceted WC grains was abnormal or suppressed depending on the initial size of WC particles. These observations were explained using growth theories of crystals in a liquid and were also confirmed by a simulation using their growth equations. The present results thus demonstrate that the growth behavior of carbide grains in a liquid is governed only by their shape, irrespective of the presence of another phase.

WC-10Co-0.8VC nanocrystalline powders were sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot press sintering (HPS), and the microstructure and properties were compared. Results show that dense WC-10Co-0.8VC can be obtained by SPS in several minutes when the sintering temperature is >1200℃. Sintered at a temperature of 1300℃, the sample prepared by SPS for 3 minutes has higher density, finer grains and better properties than that prepared by HPS for 60 minutes. SPS can be used to prepare nanocrystalline WC-10Co-0.8VC with improved properties when suitable sintering parametesr are chosen.

In the viewpoint of engineering, materials problem is a key problem, which determines whether the exploitation of fusion energy will be success. The most important class of fusion materials is plasma-facing materials (PFM). W, as high Z high melting-point metal is one of the most important candidate materials due to its high plasma erosion resistance. Improving the ductility of W and W based alloy, lowering its ductile-brittleness transition temperature for meeting the requirements of fusion application is an important task. In this paper, severalpowder meatllurgy methods of fabricating W and W based materials are being investigated.

China's PM has made great progress both in the research and development of new materials and large scale production, and has played a more and more important role in the world powder metallurgy industry. In this paper, the status quo of advanced PM materials, and traditional PM industries in China, will be discussed.

Powder forging has progressed in three decades through the stages of incubation, growth, and maturity, now accounting for 8% of the 5 B global PM market. In this presentation, a history of the technical development of powder forging will be recounted, from early failed attempts and misconceptions, through seminal academic and industrial research, to technical and commercial success. Discussion covers the contributions of government and industrial funding, fundamental knowledge development, and industrial champions for successful implementation. The focus is on lessons learned that may be beneficial to the transition of other technologies for the powder metallurgy industry.

In recent years, the research in porous metal got rapid development in China, especial in Northwest Institute for Non-ferrous Metal Research (NIN). Many porous metals with different raw material and different shapes were developed, which successfully employed in many fields. We believe we will earn more rapid development in the future.

Through the review of developing course of China cemented carbide industry, the writer of this paper at the first time generalizes it into five stages. The writer analyses China cemented carbide industry present status in aspects of produce technology, product structure, operation and management etc. Mean while by analysis of existed shortages in cemented carbide industry, the write considers that it also has three advantages in resource and scale, industry foundation and categories, market and price, and brought out some suggestion and imagination for the future develpment of China cemented carbide industry.

The 21st Century Frontier Program, which is one of the R&D programs funded by Korean government, was launched in 1999 to elevate the status of Korean science and engineering capabilities to the advanced nation in the strategic fields. Currently, 23 different fields of science and engineering programs are carried out by researchers in institutes, universities and industries. Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP) was formulated in 2001 to develop the advanced materials as well as to improve the parts manufacturing process. The main role of CAMP is proposing and forecasting the long term vision in Materials Processing Technology and also supporting the project teams for their best performance in R&D. The CAMP program consists of 5 research areas such as, Multi-layer Ceramic Electronic Parts, Powder Formed Precision Parts, 3 Dimensional Polymer Based Composites, Functional Metal Sheets, Parts Integration Technology. An introduction of R & D activities at CAMP, specially focusing on powder metallurgy, wil be presented.

The 21st Century Frontier Program, which is one of the R&D programs funded by Korean government, was launched in 1999 to elevate the status of Korean science and engineering capabilities to the advanced nation in the strategic fields. Currently, 23 different fields of science and engineering programs are carried out by researchers in institutes, universities and industries. Center for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP) was formulated in 2001 to develop the advanced materials as well as to improve the parts manufacturing process. The main role of CAMP is proposing and forecasting the long term vision in Materials Processing Technology and also supporting the project teams for their best performance in R&D. The CAMP program consists of 5 research areas such as, Multi-layer Ceramic Electronic Parts, Powder Formed Precision Parts, 3 Dimensional Polymer Based Composites, Functional Metal Sheets, Parts Integration Technology. An introduction of R & D activities at CAMP, specially focusing on powder metallurgy, will be presented.

The HTCC based multilayer structure plasma head unit have some difficulties in fabrication due to complicated post-processes, such as heat treatment at reduced atmosphere, re-bonding of each layer, and silver metallization. On the other hand, LTCC based technology provides relatively simple process for multilayer plasma unit except weak mechanical properties. To overcome this problem a combined scheme using both LTCC and HTCC technology has been developed in our group, recently. In this work, we report the structural design, materials selection, joining of LTCC with HTCC substrate, and co-firing process for the fabrication of multilayered atmospheric plasma head unit.

We newly designed and manufactured a new arranging system for a three-dimensional artificial crystal of monosized micro particles. In this system, a robotic micro-manipulator accurately locates the spherical particle onto the lattice point, and subsequently fiber lasers micro-weld the contact points between the neighboring particles. Actually, one- and two-dimensional arrays were constructed using monosized tin particles with the diameter of 400 m. Moreover, due to optimization of the process parameters, we successfully constructed the artificial crystals of simple cubic and diamond structures. In particular, the diamond structure which can represent a large photonic band gap is expected to progress toward a practical photonic crystal device.

Amorphous diamond has a very low work function (1 eV) at modest temperature (150℃). It has been coat coated on electron emitting electrodes. Such electrodes are used for cold cathode fluorescence lamps (CCFL) that illuminate liquid crystal displays (LCD) for rnote books and television sets. Amorphous diamond can dramatically reduce the turn-on voltage to lit CCFL so the lamp life can be greatly extended. Moreover, the electrical current can be increased to enhance the brightness of the light.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell technology uses powder processes to produce electrodes with residual porosity by partially sintering a mixture of electronically and ionically conducting particles. We model porous fuel cell electrodes with 3D packings of monosized spherical particles. These packings are created by numerical sintering. Each particle-particle contact is characteristic for an ionic, electronic or electrochemical resistance. The numerical packing is then discretized into a resistor network which is solved by using Kirchhoff's current law to evaluate the electrode's electrochemical performance. We investigate in particular percolation effects in functionally graded electrodes as compared to other types of electrodes.