Ni–Cr–Al metal-foam-supported catalysts for steam methane reforming (SMR) are manufactured by applying a catalytic Ni/Al2O3 sol–gel coating to powder alloyed metallic foam. The structure, microstructure, mechanical stability, and hydrogen yield efficiency of the obtained catalysts are evaluated. The structural and microstructural characteristics show that the catalyst is well coated on the open-pore Ni–Cr–Al foam without cracks or spallation. The measured compressive yield strengths are 2–3 MPa at room temperature and 1.5–2.2 MPa at 750oC regardless of sample size. The specimens exhibit a weight loss of up to 9–10% at elevated temperature owing to the spallation of the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. However, the metal-foam-supported catalyst appears to have higher mechanical stability than ceramic pellet catalysts. In SMR simulations tests, a methane conversion ratio of up to 96% is obtained with a high hydrogen yield efficiency of 82%.

The Fe-22wt.%Cr-6wt.%Al foams were fabricated via the powder alloying process in this study. The structural characteristics, microstructure, and mechanical properties of Fe-Cr-Al foams with different average pore sizes were investigated. Result of the structural analysis shows that the average pore sizes were measured as 474 μm (450 foam) and 1220 μm (1200 foam). Regardless of the pore size, Fe-Cr-Al foams had a Weaire-Phelan bubble structure, and α-ferrite was the major constituent phase. Tensile and compressive tests were conducted with an initial strain rate of 10−3 /s. Tensile yield strengths were 3.4 MPa (450 foam) and 1.4 MPa (1200 foam). Note that the total elongation of 1200 foam was higher than that of 450 foam. Furthermore, their compressive yield strengths were 2.5 MPa (450 foam) and 1.1 MPa (1200 foam), respectively. Different compressive deformation behaviors according to the pore sizes of the Fe-Cr-Al foams were characterized: strain hardening for the 450 foam and constant flow stress after a slight stress drop for the 1200 foam. The effect of structural characteristics on the mechanical properties was also discussed.

Porous metals demonstrate not only excessively low densities, but also novel physical, thermal, mechanical, electrical, and acoustic properties. Thus, porous metals exhibit exceptional performance, which are useful for diesel particulate filters, heat exchangers, and noise absorbers. In this study, SUS316L foam with 90% porosity and 3,000 μm pore size is successfully manufactured using the electrostatic powder coating (ESPC) process. The mean size of SUS316L powders is approximately 12.33 μm. The pore properties are evaluated using SEM and Archimedes. As the quantity of powder coating increases, pore size decreases from 2,881 to 1,356 μm. Moreover, the strut thickness and apparent density increase from 423.7 to 898.3 μm and from 0.278 to 0.840 g/cm3, respectively. It demonstrates that pore properties of SUS316L powder porous metal are controllable by template type and quantity of powder coating.

In this study, we report the microstructure and the high-temperature oxidation behavior of Fe-Ni alloys by spark plasma sintering. Structural characterization is performed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The oxidation behavior of Fe-Ni alloys is studied by means of a high-temperature oxidation test at 1000oC in air. The effect of Ni content of Fe-Ni alloys on the microstructure and on the oxidation characteristics is investigated in detail. In the case of Fe-2Ni and Fe-5Ni alloys, the microstructure is a ferrite (α) phase with body centered cubic (BCC) structure, and the microstructure of Fe-10Ni and Fe-20Ni alloys is considered to be a massive martensite (α’) phase with the same BCC structure as that of the ferrite phase. As the Ni content increases, the micro-Vickers hardness of the alloys also increases. It can also be seen that the oxidation resistance is improved by decreasing the thickness of the oxide film.

Fecralloy coating layer with large surface area is suitable for use as a filter media for efficient removal of hot gaseous pollutants exhausted from combustion processes. For uniform preparation of a Fecralloy coating layer with large surface area and strong adhesion to substrate, electrospray coating and thermal treatment processes are experimentally optimized in this study. A nano-colloidal solution with 0.05 wt% Fecralloy nanoparticles is successfully prepared. Optimized electrospraying conditions are experimentally discovered to prepare a uniform coating layer of Fecralloy nanocolloidal solution on a substrate. Drying the electrospray coated Fecralloy nano-colloidal solution layer at 120oC and subsequent heating at 600oC are the best post-treatment for enhancing the adhesion force and surface roughness of the Fecralloy coating layer on a substrate. An electrospray coating system, consisting of several multi-groove nozzles, is also experimentally confirmed as a reasonable device for uniform coating of Fecralloy nano-colloid on a large area substrate

The porous metals are known as relatively excellent characteristic such as large surface area, light, lower heat capacity, high toughness and permeability. The Fe-Cr-Al alloys have high corrosion resistance, heat resistance and chemical stability for high temperature applications. And then many researches are developed the Fe-Cr-Al porous metals for exhaust gas filter, hydrogen reformer catalyst support and chemical filter. In this study, the Fe-Cr-Al porous metals are developed with Fe-22Cr-6Al(wt) powder using powder compaction method. The mean size of Fe-22Cr-6Al(wt) powders is about 42.69 μm. In order to control pore size and porosity, Fe-Cr-Al powders are sintered at 1200~1450oC and different sintering maintenance as 1~4 hours. The powders are pressed on disk shapes of 3 mm thickness using uniaxial press machine and sintered in high vacuum condition. The pore properties are evaluated using capillary flow porometer. As sintering temperature increased, relative density is increased from 73% to 96% and porosity, pore size are decreased from 27 to 3.3%, from 3.1 to 1.8 μm respectively. When the sintering time is increased, the relative density is also increased from 76.5% to 84.7% and porosity, pore size are decreased from 23.5% to 15.3%, from 2.7 to 2.08 μm respectively.

Metallic porous materials have many interesting combinations of physical and geometrical properties with very low specific weight or high gas permeability. In this study, highly porous Cu foam is successfully fabricated by a slurry coating process. The Cu foam is fabricated specifically by changing the coating amount and the type of polyurethane foam used as a template. The processing parameters and pore characteristics are observed to identify the key parameters of the slurry coating process and the optimized morphological properties of the Cu foam. The pore characteristics of Cu foam are investigated by scanning electron micrographs and micro-CT analyzer, and air permeability of the Cu foam is measured by capillary flow porometer. We confirmed that the characteristics of Cu foam can be easily controlled in the slurry coating process by changing the microstructure, porosity, pore size, strut thickness, and the cell size. It can be considered that the fabricated Cu foams show tremendous promise for industrial application.

This research presents a preparation method of dental components by metal injection molding process (MIM process) using titanium scrap. About 20 μm sized spherical titanium powders for MIM process were successfully prepared by a novel dehydrogenation and spheroidization method using in-situ radio frequency thermal plasma treatment. The effects of MIM process parameters on the mechanical and biological properties of dental components were investigated and the optimum condition was obtained. After sintering at 1250oC for 1 hour in vacuum, the hardness and the tensile strength of MIMed titanium components were 289 Hv and 584 MPa, respectively. Prepared titanium dental components were not cytotoxic and they showed a good cell proliferation property.

Fe foam with above 90% porosity and 2 millimeter pore size was successfully fabricated by a slurry coating process. In this study, the binder contents were controlled to produce the Fe foam with different pore size, strut thickness and porosity. Firstly, the slurry was prepared by uniform mixing with Fe powders, distilled water and polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) as initial materials. After slurry coating on the polyurethane(PU) foam the sample was dried at 80oC. The PVA and PU foams were then removed by heating at 700oC for 3 hours. The debinded samples were subsequently sintered at 1250oC with holding time of 3 hours under hydrogen atmosphere. The three dimensional geometries of the obtained Fe foams with open cell structure were investigated using X-ray micro CT(computed tomography) as well as the pore morphology, size and phase.

The study on the fabrication of iron powder from forging scales using hydrogen gas has been conducted on the effect of hydrogen partial pressure, temperature, and reactive time. The mechanism for the reduction of iron oxides was proposed with various steps, and it was found that reduction pattern might be different depending on tem- perature. The iron content in the scale and reduction ratio of oxygen were both increased with increasing reactive time at 0.1atm of hydrogen partial pressure. On the other hand, for over 30 minutes at 0.5 atm of hydrogen partial pressure, the values were found to be almost same. In the long run, iron metallic powder was obtained with over 90% of iron content and an average size of its powder was observed to be about 100 µm.