Thermoelectric conversion efficiency of thermoelectric elements can be increased by using a structure combining n-type and p-type semiconductors. From the above point of view, attention was directed at ZnO as a candidate n-type semiconductor material and investigations were made. As the result, a dimensionless figure of merit ZT close to 0.28 (1073K) was obtained for specimens produced by the PCS (Pulse Current Sintering) method with addition of specified quantities of , CoO, and to ZnO. It was found that the interstitial in the ZnO restrains the grain growth and CoO acts onto the bond between grains. The influence of the inclusion of and CoO onto the sintering behavior also was investigated.

Magnetron sputtered TiN, (Ti, Al)N and TiN/(Ti, Al)N multilayer coatings grown on cemented carbide substrates have been characterized by using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM), nanoindentation, scratcher and cutting tests. Results show that TiN coating is bell mouth columnar structures, (Ti, Al)N coating is straight columnar structures and the modulation structure has been formed in the TiN/(Ti, Al)N multilayer coating. TiN/(Ti, Al)N multilayer coating exhibited higher hardness, better adhesion with substrate and excellent cutting performance compared with TiN and (Ti, Al)N coating.

This paper presents a study of large grains by transmission electron microscopy in two WC-Co alloys, one W rich and one C rich. In the W rich alloy, some large grains are found in contact with the phase. The C content influences the morphology of large grains: they are flatter in the C rich alloy with smoother interfaces. Whatever the C content, they contain few dislocations compared to matrix grains except often in a small area. Small WC grains are often found inside the large grains. They have likely been engulfed during the growth of the large grains owing to the low boundary energy.

The binder phase for TiC reinforced steel matrix composite was added in the form of elemental powders and master alloy powders. The microstructures, binder phase variation with TiC content and mechanical properties were evaluated. The addition of a type of binder phase largely effects the microstructure and mechanical properties. The binder phase variation from starting composition was observed with increase in wt% TiC content and this variation was higher when the master alloy powders were used as a binder. The response to heat treatment was decreased with an increase in TiC content due to the shift of binder phase from the starting composition.

The mixed atomized iron powders with 0.3% graphite and 1% Ni powders were cold pressed and sintered at for 30 min under pure Ar gas atmosphere. Some of the sintered specimens were intercritically annealed at and quenched in water (single quenching). The other sintered specimens were first fully austenized at and water quenched. These specimens were then intercritically annealed at and re-quenched in water. The experimental results showed that the wear coefficient effectively decreased in the double quenched specimen.

The use of the nickel free, high nitrogen stainless steel powder and nitriding during sintering of iron based materials have been shown as an alternative way to the conventional PM stainless steels containing nickel. Nitrogen as an alloying element for iron improves in an effective way the properties of sintered alloyed steels. The powder metallurgy route is a suitable way to introduce nitrogen into these alloys and, in particular, to produce high nitrogen (close to the solubility limit) stainless steels. The paper presents and discusses the nitriding behavior of nickel-free stainless steels produced by powder metallurgy method. Alloyed melt was atomized by nitrogen and in this way nitrogen was introduced into the powder. Further nitriding occurred during sintering in a nitrogen atmosphere. For comparison, compacts having the same composition as an alloyed powder were produced from elemental powders mixture. Sintering-nitriding behaviour of investigated materials has been controlled by dilatometry, chemical and X-Ray phase analysis and metallography. Mechanical properties of sintered compacts were also measured.

The main object of this research was to examine the effect of sintering conditions on the microstructure of tungsten heavy alloys and how the resulting modification of the microstructure can be used to optimize their mechanical properties. Alloys composed of 88%, 93% and 95% wt. of tungsten and the balance is Ni: Fe in the ratio of 7:3 were sintered at different temperatures for different sintering holding times in hydrogen atmosphere. It was shown that the mechanical properties of the alloys, and especially their ductility, are harmed when tungsten grains are contiguous.

SUS316L stainless steel, commercial pure Titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy powders applied by Mechanical Milling (MM) process are sintered by Hot Roll Sintering (HRS) process. Microstructure and mechanical properties of those HRS materials is investigated. The microstructures of materials produced by HRS process consist of fine grains and work-hardened structure, that is, the hybrid microstructure. Tensile test of the HRS material demonstrated the good mechanical properties. These results show that the HRS process is very effective to the improvement of mechanical properties in the SUS316L stainless steel, commercial pure Titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

1mm-thick BLT ceramics were sintered in accordance with a bulk ceramic fabrication process. All XRD peaks detected in the sintered ceramics were indexed as the Bi-layered perovskite structure without secondary phases. Density was increased with increasing the sintering temperature up to and the maximum value was about 98% of the theoretical density. The remanent polarization (2Pr) value of BLT ceramic sintered at was approximately at the applied voltage of 4.5kV. From these results, a BLT ceramic target for plused laser deposition (PLD) system was successfully fabricated.

Tungsten coatings with different interlayers onto the oxygen-free copper substrates were fabricated by atmosphere plasma spraying. The effects of different interlayers of NiCrAl, NiAl and W/Cu on bonding strength were studied. SEM, EDS and XRD were used to investigate the photographs and compositions of these coatings. The tungsten coatings with different initial particle sizes resulted in different microstructures. Oxidation was not detected in the tungsten coating, but in the interlayer, it was found by both XRD and EDS. The tungsten coating deposited directly onto the copper substrate presented higher bonding strength than those with different interlayers.

Nanostructured aluminum powders were obtained by means of planetary ball milling with methanol as the Process Control Agent (PCA). The behavior, during milling, was considered measuring the microhardness and grain size at different milling times. Bulk near-full density samples were sintered using the Spark Plasma Sintering technology with different schedules: temperature of and , pressure of 30 MPa and 60 MPa and different modes of applying the pressure were changed in order to understand the behavior during sintering. All the samples retained their nanostructure with an increase of the grain size from about 46 up to 70-90 nm.

The plastic deformation behavior of cemented carbides is related to the WC grain boundary strength. Ab initio calculations predict that Co and Mn segregate to WC/WC grain boundaries. To experimentally study the effect of Mn, a WC-Co-Mn material was manufactured and compared to a WC-Co material. The microstructure was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), including electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Special attention was paid to the WC grain size and the frequency of special low-energy grain boundaries. Mn was found to have negligible effect on both the WC grain growth and the fraction of WC/WC boundaries in the as-sintered material.

Using as sintering additives and Si as a raw powder, the continuously porous in-situ bodies were fabricated by multi-pass extrusion process and their microstructures were investigated depending on the addition of carbon (0-9wt%) in the mixture powder. The introduction of fibers observed in the unidirectional continuous pores as well as in the pore-frame regions of the nitrided bodies can be an effective method in increasing the filtration efficiency. In the case of no carbon addition, the network type fibers with high aspect ratio appeared in the continuous pores with diameters of 150-200 nm. However, in the case of 9wt% C addition, the fibers were found without any network type and had diameters of 200-250 nm.

In this present investigation, Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) of M2 High Speed Steel (HSS) parts using a wax-High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) binder is shown. The elimination of organic binder was carried out by thermal debinding under inert atmosphere. In order to keep carbon in the sample that could improve the sintering process, incomplete debinding was performed between 450 and . The specimens were sintered at temperatures between 1210 and in high vacuum atmosphere, obtaining the 98% of the theoretical density. In the samples with higher residual carbon content, the sintering window was extended up to 20 degrees and the optimum temperature was lower.