The characteristics of two commercial 2xxx series Al alloy powders, AMB2712 and 201AB, were evaluated and their compacting and sintering characteristics were discussed in tems of compacting pressure. The particle shapes of both two powder mixtures were irregular and their particle size distributions were broad. The compactibility of AMB2712 was superior to that of 201AB because of better fluidity. The sintered density was higher than the green density at low compacting pressure, however, it was lower than the green density when the samples were compacted at higher pressure due to the selling during sintering. The sintered density was alomost the same as the green density at the "homogeneous deformation" stage. It was observed that pores were created at the triple points due to the rapid diffusion of Cu in Al. Cu in Al.

Microstructural and mechanical characteristics of P/M 6061 Al alloy subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) were investigated. The P/M 6061 Al alloy had an intial grain size of approximately . An equiaxed ultra-fine grained structure with the mean grain size of was obtained by four repetitive ECAP at 473 K. The microhardness of P/M 6061 Al alloy was drastically increased from about 40 Hv to 80 Hv by two repetitive ECAP at 373 K. However, the microhardness decreased with increasing ECAP temperature. The tensile stength of as-hot-pressed P/M 6061 Al alloy before ECAP was 95 MPa, whereas it increased to both 248 MPa after two repetitive ECAP at 373 K and 130 MPa after four repetitive ECAP at 473 K. The tensile properties of the ECAPed sample were compared with those of commercial cast 6061-O and 6061-T4 Al alloys.

The 6061 Al alloy based composites reinforced with 10 vol% SiC whiskers were prepared by powder metallurgy with the powders having the different sizes, i.e. < and> The composites were subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at various conditions and the microstructural changes during ECAP were examined In the composites SiC whiskers were clustered and randomly aligned. The clusters were relatively well distributed in the composite with the smaller initial powder size. After ECAP, the clusters were aligned parallel to flow direction and became smaller. In addition, the shape of clusters was changed from irregular to round. The microstructure of the ECAPed samples were compared with those of the conventionally hot-extruded composites. The uniform microstructure and enhanced microhardness could be obtained by using the powders having the smaller size, decreasing ECAP temperature and repeating ECAP.

본 연구에서는 특별하게 고안된 In-situ VHP 제조 공정을 이용하여 상온에서 500˚C까지의 진공 열간 압축과 canning 작업 없이 520˚C에서 연속 압출옳 하여 Sicp/pure Al과 SiCp/2024Al MMCs를 제조하였다. 복합재료의 인장강도와 미세구조에 영향을 주는 SiC 입자크기, 체적률, 압출비에 대해서 조사하였다. 압출비 10:1의 경우에는 SiCp/pure Al과 SiCp/2024Al 복합재료 둘 다 건전한 외형과 SiCp의 일정한 분산을 가지면서 SiCp의 균열이 없는 좋은 미세 구조를 가지고 있었다. 그러나 압출비 16:1의 경우에는 체적률이 증가할수록 파괴된 SiC 입자의 수가 증가하였으며 2024Al 기지내의 복합재료와 순수한 Al 기지재 복합재료를 서로 비교하였다. 동일한 체적률과 압출비의 경우에는 SiCp의 크기가 작은 복합재료가 SiCp가 큰 복합재료보다 인장강도가 더 높았다.