Successful implementation of the powder forming process requires a detailed understanding of several interacting phenomena. The aim is to better control the process variables and to optimize the design parameters. A number of studies were carried out using various constitutive models that take the density change during powder forming into account. Most of them were developed for powders and sintered porous metals, but few of them can describe powder agglomerates, whose behaviour is different from that of uniformly arranged powders. The modification is needed to account for the effect of agglomeration on densification behaviour. Incorporating powder agglomeration into a constitutive model is of considerable importance, as it provides a possibility of relating the powder densification response to microstructural characteristics of powder particles, especially in case of nano powders. In this paper, we proposed a new powder agglomerate model in order to describe the unique densification behaviour of nano powders. The proposed model was applied to the densification of powder agglomerates during cold isostatic pressing.

Using a developed high-frequency induction heated combustion method. the simultaneous synthesis and densification of WC-xvol.%Co() hard materials was accomplished using elemental powders of W, C and Co. A complete synthesis and densification of the materials was achieved in one step within a duration of 1min. The final relative densities of the composite were over 98.5% for all cases, under the applied pressure of 60 MPa and the induced current. The hardness of the composites decreases and the fracture toughness increases with increasing cobalt content. As the carbon to tungsten ration increases, the hardness increase, but the fracture toughness decreases. The maximum values for the fracture toughness and hardness are 15.1 (at 20vol.%Co, W:C=1:1), and 1928 (at 5vol.%Co, W:C=1:1.3), respectively. Therefore we concluded that the HFIHCS method. which can produce WC-xvol.%Co within 1 minute in one step is superior to conventional ones.

Mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder was sintered by Spark-Plasma Sintering (SPS) process. Densification and behavior mechanical property were determined from the experimental results and analysis ,such as changes in linear shrinkage, shrinkage rate, microstructure, and phase during sintering process, Victors hardness, and transver.ie-rupture-strength (TRS). Above 97% relative density was obtained after sintering at 115 for 5 min. Crystallite size determined by the Scherrer method was approximately 50 nm. From the X-ray diffraction analysis it was confirmed that the sintered bodies were composed mainly of NiAl phase together with NiAl phase. Measured Vickers hardness and TRS value were 55510 and 139375 MPa , respectively.

Spark-Plasma Sintering(SPS) is one of the new sintering methods which takes advantages both inconventional pressure sintering and electric current sintering. It is known that SPS is very effective for the densification of hard-to-sinter materials like refractory metals, intermetallic compounds, glass and ceramics without grain growth. However, a clear explanation for sintering mechanism and an experimental evidence for the formation of weak plasma during SPS are not given yet. In this study, fundamental study on sintering behavior and mechanism of SPS was investiged. For this study, various spherical Fe powders were prepared such as as-received, as-reduced, and as-oxidized and then sintered by SPS facility. In order to confirm the surface cleaning effect during SPS neck region and fracture surface of sintered body was observed and analyzed by SEM/EPMA. Densification behavior was analyzed from the data of deflection along the pressure axis. Some specimens were additionally produced by Hot Pressing and the results were compared with those of SPS.

An investigation was carried out on the possibility whether the ball-milling process of low energy could successfully improve the packing density and flowability for MIM application in W-20wt%Cu system. In this study, W-20wt%Cu powder mixture was prepared by ball-milling. W powder was not fractured by low mechanical impact energy used in the present work during the critical ball-milling time, but the ductile Cu powder was easily deformed to the 3 dimensional equiaxed shape, having the particle size similar to that of W powder. The ball-milled mixture of W-20wt%Cu powder had the more homogeneous distribution of each component and the higher amount of powder loading for molding than the simple mixture of W-Cu powder with an irregular shape and a different size. Accordingly, the MIM W(1.75)-20wt%Cu powder compacts were able to be sintered to the relative density of 99% by sintering at for one hour.

It is well known that the Cu-Cr alloys are very difficult to be made by conventional sintering methods. This difficulty originates both from limited solubility of Cr in the Cu matrix and from limited sintering temperature due to high vapor pressures of Cr and Cu components at the high temperature. Densification of Cu-50%Cr Powder compacts by conventional Powder metallurgy Process has been studied. Three kinds of sintering methods were tested in order to obtain high-density sintered compacts. Completely densified Cu-Cr compacts could be obtained neither by solid state sintering method nor by liquid phase sintering method. Both low degree of shrinkage and evolution of large pores in the Cu matrix during the solid state sintering are attributed to the anchoring effect of large Cr particles, which inhibits homogeneous densification of Cu matrix and induces pore generation in the Cu matrix. In addition, the effect of undiffusible gas coming from the reduction of Cu-oxide and Cr-oxide was observed during liquid phase sintering. A two-step sintering method, solid state sintering followed by liquid phase sintering, was proved to have beneficial effect on the fabrication of high-dendsity Cu-Cr sintered compacts. The sintered compacts have properties similar to those of commercial products.