The microstructure and mechanical property of hot-pressed nanocomposites with a different temperature for atmosphere changing from to Ar have been studied. When the atmosphere changed from to Ar gas at , the hot-pressed composite was characterized by inhomogeneous microstructure and low fracture strength. On the contrary, when the atmosphere changed at a lower temperature of , a more homogeneous microstructure and higher fracture strength was observed.

The effect of Cu on the hydrogen reduction of powders was investigated by measuring the humidity change during a non-isothermal process of hydrogen reduction. The presence of Cu induced a shift in the reduction temperature and strongly affected the reduction processes of , which comprised the contained chemical vapor transport of . This study suggests that the surface of the Cu grains acts as a nucleation site for the reduction of to particles from or . Such an activated reduction process results in the deposition of Mo and particles on the surface of the Cu.

For precise property control of sintered products, it is important to understand accurately the packing density of the powder. We developed a packing simulation program that could make a packed bed of spherical particles having particle size distribution. In addition, the influence of the particle shape of the actual powder on the packing density was quantitatively analyzed. The predicted packing densities corresponded well to the actual data.

In order to investigate 95% retained critical current of Bi-2223/Ag tapes under various stress-strain conditions, load cell attached tension and bending apparatus was used. The critical current of stress-strained tape was degraded below 95% retained critical current when tension and bending was simultaneously applied together. But only one of this tension or bending did not degrade the tape below 95% retained critical current. Deformation temperature was important to maintain the 95% retained Ic of Bi-2223/Ag tapes after bending or tension deformation because mechanical strength of tapes can be changed drastically between room temperature and 77 K.

Five kinds of double stacked 385 (55 x7) filamentary Bi2212/Ag round wires and 55 filamentary tapes with different Ag ratios (silver area/superconductor area) have been fabricated via PIT method, and the effects of Ag ratio and processing factors on critical current density were studied. The effects of the maximum temperature and average filament diameter on critical current density were also studied. The wire of 0.74 mm diameter having Ag ratio 3.7 showed critical current density of at 4.2 K, 0 T.

The p-type Te functional gradient material (FGM) was fabricated by hot-pressing the mechanically alloyed and the 0.5 at% powders. Also, the n-type FGM was processed by hot-pressing the mechanically alloyed and the 0.3 wt% Bi-doped PbTe powders. With larger than , the p-type FGM exhibited larger thermoelectric output power than those of the and the 0.5 at% alloys. For the n-type FGM, the thermoelectric output power superior to those of the and the 0.3 wt% Bi-doped PbTe was predicted at larger than .

TZM alloy having elongated coarse-grain structure was developed by three-step internal nitriding treatment at 1423 to 1873 K in and subsequent recrystallization treatment at 2173 K in vacuum. Some specimens were subjected to re-nitriding treatment at 1873 K for 16 h. After the recrystallization treatment, aspect ratio (L/W) of grains for rolling direction was about 50 at the maximum. Yield stress obtained at 1773 K after re-nitriding treatment was about 6 times as large as that of recrystallized specimen. Re-nitriding was very effective in the improvement in strength of TZM alloy having elongated coarse-grain structure.

In order to overcome the recrystallization embrittlement and irradiation embrittlement of Mo, which are major problems for its fusion applications, internally nitrided Mo alloys were prepared by a novel multi-step internal nitriding. Neutron irradiation was performed in the Japan Material Testing Reactor (JMTR). After irradiation, nitrided Mo alloys exhibited ower ductile-brittle transition temperature than irradiated TZM. These results suggested that multi-step internal nitriding was effective to the improvement in the embrittlement by irradiation. Transmission electron microscope observation revealed that TiN particles precipitated by nitriding acted as a sink for irradiation-induced defects.

For pure Molybdenum carburized in mixed gases of argon and carbon monoxide, microstructural observations were carried out. X-ray diffraction analysis for carburized specimens revealed that brittle - layer hardly formed in the case of low carbon monoxide concentration. Fracture strength of the specimen carburized at 1673 K for 16 h is about 550 MPa higher than that of the un-carburized specimen. SEM observation revealed that with increasing carburizing temperature, the region demonstrating a transgranular fracture mode progressed towards the center of specimen. This result means that the grain boundaries were strengthened by the grain boundary diffusion of carbon and the strength of grain boundaries exceeded that of grain itself.