In the present work, 6061 Al-B4C sintered composites containing different B4C contents were fabricated and their characteristic were investigated as a function of sintering temperature. For this, composite powders and their compacts with B4C various contents from 0 to 40 wt.% were fabricated using a planetary ball milling equipment and cold isostatic pressing, respectively, and then they were sintered in the temperature ranges of 580 to 660o C. Above sin- tering temperature of 640o C, real density was decreased due to the occurrence of sweat phenomena. In addition, it was realized that sinterability of 6061Al-B4C composite material was lowered with increasing B4C content, resulting in the decrease in its real density and at the same time in the increment of porosity.
Fe-TiC composite powder was fabricated via two steps. The first step was a high-energy milling of FeO and carbon powders followed by heat treatment for reduction to obtain a (Fe+C) powder mixture. The optimal condition for high-energy milling was 500 rpm for 1h, which had been determined by a series of preliminary experiment. Reduction heat-treatment was carried out at for 1h in flowing argon gas atmosphere. Reduced powder mixture was investigated by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Laser Particle Size Analyser (LPSA). The second step was a high-energy milling of (Fe+C) powder mixture and additional powder, and subsequent in-situ synthesis of TiC particulate in Fe matrix through a reaction of carbon and Ti. High-energy milling was carried out at 500 rpm for 1 h. Heat treatment for reaction synthesis was carried out at for 1 h in flowing argon gas atmosphere. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results of the fabricated Fe-TiC composite powder showed that only TiC and Fe phases exist. Results from FE-SEM observation and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectros-copy (EDS) revealed that TiC phase exists uniformly dispersed in the Fe matrix in a form of particulate with a size of submicron.
Fe based (FeCSiBPCrMoAl) amorphous powder, which is a composition of iron blast cast slag, were produced by a gas atomization process, and sequently mixed with ductile Cu powder by a mechanical ball milling process. The Fe-based amorphous powders and the Fe-Cu composite powders were compacted by a spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Densification of the Fe amorphous-Cu composited powders by spark plasma sintering of was occurred through a plastic deformation of the each amorphous powder and Cu phase. The SPS samples milled by AGO-2 under 500 rpm had the best homogeneity of Cu phase and showed the smallest Cu pool size. Micro-Vickers hardness of the as-SPSed specimens was changed with the milling processes.
Ultra-fine TiC/Co composite powder was synthesized by the carbothermal reduction process without wet chemical processing. The starting powder was prepared by milling of titanium dioxide and cobalt oxalate powders followed by subsequent calcination to have a target composition of TiC-15 wt.%Co. The prepared oxide powder was mixed again with carbon black, and this mixture was then heat-treated under flowing argon atmosphere. The changes in the phase, mass and particle size of the mixture during heat treatment were investigated using XRD, TG-DTA and SEM. The synthesized oxide powder after heat treatment at 700 has a mixed phase of TiO and CoTiO phases. This composite oxide powder was carbothermally reduced to TiC/Co composite powder by the solid carbon. The synthesized TiC/Co composite powder at 1300 for 9 hours has particle size of under about 0.4 m.
The electromagnetic wave absorption sheets were fabricated by mixing of nanocrystalline soft magnetic powder, charcoal powder and polymer based binder. The complex permittivity, complex permeability, and scattering parameter have been measured using a network analyzer in the frequency range of 10 MHz10 GHz. The results showed that complex permittivity of sheets was largely dependent on the frequency and the amount of charcoal powder : The permittivity was improved up to 100 MHz, however the value was decreased above 1 GHz. The power loss of electromagnetic wave absorption data showed almost the same tendency as the results of complex permittivity. However, the complex permeability was not largely affected by the frequency, and the values were decreased with the addition of charcoal powder. Based on the results, it can be summarized that the addition of charcoal powder was very effective to improve the EM wave absorption in the frequency range of 10 MHz1 GHz.
High-energy mechanical milling (HEMM) and sintering into Al-Mg alloy melt were employed tofabricate an Al alloy matrix composite reinforced with submicron and micron sized Al2O3 particles. Al-basedmetal matrix composite (MMC) reinforced with submicron and micron sized Al2O3 particles was successfullyfabricated by sintering at 1000oC for 2h into Al-Mg alloy melt, which used high energy mechanical milled Al-SiO2-CuO-ZnO composite powders. Submicron/micron-sized Al2O3 particles and eutectic Si were formed by in situdisplacement reaction between Al, SiO2, CuO, and ZnO during sintering for 2h into Al-Mg alloy melt and werehomogeneously distributed in the Al-Si-(Zn, Cu) matrix. The refined grains and homogeneously distributedsubmicron/micron-sized Al2O3 particles had good interfacial adhesive, which gives good wear resistance withhigher hardness.
In this study, graphite composites were fabricated by warm press molding method to realize commercialization of PEM fuel cells. Graphite composites have been considered as alternative economic materials for bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells. Graphite powder that enables to provide electrical conductivity was selected as the main substance. The graphite powder was mixed with phenolic resin and the mixture was pressed using a warm press method. First of all, the graphite powder was pulverized with a ball mill for the dense packing of composite. As the ball milling time increases, the average size of particles decreases and the size distribution becomes narrow. This allows for improvement of the uniformity of graphite composite. However, the surface electrical resistivity of graphite composite increases as the ball milling time increases. It is due to that graphite particles with amorphous phase are generated on the surface due to the friction and collision of particles during pulverizing. We found that the contact electrical resistivity of graphite particles increases as the particle size decreases. The contact electrical resistivity of graphite powders was reduced due to high molding pressure by warm press molding. This leads to improvement of the mechanical properties of graphite composite. Hydrogen gas impermeability was measured with the graphite composite, showing a possibility of the application for bipolar plate in fuel cell. And, I-V curves of the graphite composite bipolar plate exhibit a similar performance to the graphite bipolar plate.
The vacuum infiltration method is one of the composite producing methods. There are several parameters in composite production by vacuum infiltration. One of them is particle size of reinforcement in particulate reinforced composites. In this study, MgO powder and Al were used as reinforcement and matrix respectively. MgO powders with different size and amount to give same height were filled in quartz tubes and liquid metal was vacuum infiltrated into the MgO powder under same vacuum condition and for same time. Infiltration height was measured and microstructure and fracture behavior of composite were investigated. It has been found that infiltration height and fracture strength were increased with particulate reinforcement sizes. It has also been determined that molten metal temperature facilitates infiltration.
We fabricated Bi-2212/ composite superconductors and evaluated the effects of the powder mixing method and melting temperature on their microstructure and superconducting properties. The Bi-2212 powders were mixed with by hand-mixing (HM) and planetary ball milling (PBM) and then the powder mixtures were melted at , solidified, and annealed. We found that the powder mixture prepared by PBM was finer and more homogeneously mixed than that prepared by HM, resulting in more homogeneous microstructure and smaller and second phases after annealing.
Particles of high strength material when coated with silver offer a means of obtaining desirable electrical properties and high strength. The coating process employed aqueous ammoniacal silver-nitrate electrolytes with a formaldehyde solution as the reductant. Modifying additives were also applied. The reduction and subsequent deposition of silver occurred selectively on the surface of the tungsten particles. The morphologies of the coated particles were assessed by SEM imaging. The silver was uniformed coated on tungsten powder and its thickness was estimated to be approximately 100nm on the basis of a mass account.
The creep behavior of Al-5vol.% SiC composite was investigated. The composite powder was produced by mechanical milling and hot extruded at at ratio of 16:1. A creep test was carried out at a constant load at 598, 648, and 673 K. Using the steady-state equations, the threshold stress and the stress exponent of the creep as a function of temperature were determined. The stress exponent was found to be 3 at the temperature of 673 K and 8 at 598 and 648 K. The dependency of the threshold stress to temperature obeys the Arrhenius relationship with the energy term of .
Aluminum-based composites reinforced with various amounts of were produced by powder metallurgy (P/M). The machinability properties of were determined by means of cutting forces and surface roughness. Machining tests were carried out by using PCD and K10 tools. Increasing of volume fraction in the matrix resulted in a decrease of the surface roughness and turning forces. PCD cutting tools showed better cutting performance than K10 tools.
An infiltration technique using W-Cu composite powder has been developed to enhance microstructural uniformity of W-Cu pseudo-alloy. W-Cu composite powder, manufactured by reduction from WO3 and CuO powder mixtures, were blended with W powder and then cold iso-statically pressed into a cylindrical bar under 150 MPa. The pressed samples were pre-sintered at 1300 oC for 1 hour under hydrogen to make a skeleton structure. This skeleton structure was more homogeneous than that formed by using W and Cu powder mixtures. The skeleton structures were infiltrated with Cu under hydrogen atmosphere. The infiltrated W-Cu pseudo-alloy showed homogeneous microstructure without Cu rich region.
Direct reduction and carburization process was thought one of the best methods to make nano-sized WC powder. The oxide powders were mixed with graphite powder by ball milling in the compositions of WC-5,-10wt%Co. The mixture was heated at the temperatures of for 5 hours in Ar. The reaction time of the reduction and carburization was decreased as heating temperatures and cobalt content increased. The mean size of WC/Co composite powders was about 260 nm after the reactions. And the mean size of WC grains in WC/Co composite powders was about 38 nm after the reaction at for 5 hours.
In the present, the focus is on the synthesis of nanostructured TiC/Co composite powder by the spray thermal conversion process using titanium dioxide powder has an average particle size of 50 nm and cobalt nitrate as raw materials. The titanium-cobalt-oxygen based oxide powder prepared by the combination of the spray drying and desalting methods. The titanium-cobalt-oxygen based oxide powder carbothermally reduced by the solid carbon. The synthesized TiC-15wt.%Co composite powder at 1473K for 2 hours had an average particle size of 150 nm.
[ ] composite powders were produced by high energy mechanical milling of a mixture of Al and powders followed by a combustion reaction. The powders were subsequently thermally sprayed on H13 steel substrates. Microstructural examination was conducted on the composite powders and thermally sprayed coatings, using X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The performance of the coatings was evaluated in terms of micro-hardness and thermal fatigue. The thermally sprayed coatings performed very well in the preliminary thermal fatigue tests and showed no wetting tendency to molten aluminum.
The spherical particles of CeO2/SiO2 composite powder with narrow-size distribution and pure phase particles were synthesized by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method from aqueous cerium sulfate solution. The resulting composite powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmittance electron microscopy, in-vitro sun protect factor, and BET surface area analysis. The concentration of cerium sulfate was tested to vary the particle size from 3.40×10-3 to 1.02×10-2mol/cm3 to study concentration effect of starting material. The average particle size from the 3.40×10-3mol/cm3 concentration was found to be slightly smaller than that from the 1.02×10-2mol/cm3 concentration, because of the relation between the droplet size and the concentration of the starting material solution