The microstructures and properties of TiC dispersed nickel-base alloy were studied in this work. The alloy prepared by powder metallurgical processing was solution treated, 1st-aged at for 16 hours, and then 2nd-aged at for 4 hours. Microstucture of sintered specimen showed that TiC particles are uniformly dispersed in Ni base alloy. In the specimen aged at for 8 hours, the fine (Al,Ti) precipitates with round shape are observed and the very fine (Al,Ti) particles with round shape are precipitated in the specimen aged at for 4 hours. The presence of precipitates in TiC/Ni base alloy increased the hardness and wear resistance of the specimen. The hardness and wear resistance of the Ni-base with TiC are higher than those of conventional Ni-base superalloy X-750 because of dispersion strengthening of TiC particles. The hardness, transverse rupture strength and resistance of the specimen 2nd-aged at for 4 hours are higher than those of 1st-aged specimen due to ultrafine (Al,Ti) precipitates.

Recently, the fabrication process of the W-Cu nanocomposite powders has been studied to improve the sinterability through the mechanical alloying and reduction of W and Cu oxide mixtures. In this study. the W-Cu composites were produced by mechanochemical process (MCP) using mixtures with two different milling types of low and high energy, respectively. These ball-milled mixtures were reduced in atmosphere. The ball-milled and reduced powders were analyzed through XRD, SEM and TEM. The fine W-Cu powder could be obtained by the high energy ball-milling (HM) compared with the large Cu-cored structure powder by the low energy ball-milling (LM). After the HM for 20h, the W grain size of the reduced W-Cu powder was about 20-30 nm.

Processing and properties of composites with Ni-Fe content of 10 and 15 wt% were investigated. Homogeneous powder mixtures of /Ni-Fe alloy were prepared by the solution-chemistry route using , and powders. Microstructural observation of composite powder revealed that Ni-Fe alloy particles with a size of 20nm were homogeneously dispersed on powder surfaces. Hot-pressed composites showed enhanced fracture toughness and magnetic response. The properties are discussed based on the observed microstructural characteristics

The microstructures and indentation fracture of pressureless-sintered crystalline were investigated as a basic study for the application of weak phase of fibrous monolithic composites. They were comprised with many lamella twins as well as micro-cracks at the grain boundaries. The hardness at room temperature was remarkably low value(575 Hv) due to the low relative density and existence of microcracks at grain boundaries. The main fracture mode was a typical intergranular fracture, and showed remarkable micro-cracking effect. The heavy plastic deformation was observed around the site of indentation. In addition, the was expected to apply as a weak phase in the fibrous monolithic composites because of the low hardness and easily plastic deformation that could be led the preferable pulled-out and microcracking toughening under the failure

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.