A well-established characterization method is required in powder bed fusion (PBF) metal additive manufacturing, where metal powder is used. The characterization methods from the traditional powder metallurgy process are still being used. However, it is necessary to develop advanced methods of property evaluation with the advances in additive manufacturing technology. In this article, the characterization methods of powders for metal PBF are reviewed, and the recent research trends are introduced. Standardization status and specifications for metal powder for the PBF process which published by the ISO, ASTM, and MPIF are also covered. The establishment of powder characterization methods are expected to contribute to the metal powder industry and the advancement of additive manufacturing technology through the creation of related databases.

Powder characteristics, such as density, size, shape, thermal properties, and surface area, are of significant importance in the powder bed fusion (PBF) process. The powder required is exclusive for an efficient PBF process. In this study, the particle size distribution suitable for the powder bed fusion process was derived by modeling the PBF product using simulation software (GeoDict). The modeling was carried out by layering sintered powder with a large particle size distribution, with 50 μm being the largest particle size. The results of the simulation showed that the porosity decreased when the mean particle size of the powder was reduced or the standard deviation increased. The particle size distribution of prepared titanium powder by the atomization process was also studied. This study is expected to offer direction for studies related to powder production for additive manufacturing.

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.

Information and communication technologies are developing rapidly as IC chip size becomes smaller and information processing becomes faster. With this development, digital circuit technology is being widely applied to mobile phones, wireless LANs, mobile terminals, and digital communications, in which high frequency range of GHz is used. In highdensity electronic circuits, issues of noise and EMC(Electro-Magnetic Compatibility) arising from cross talk between interconnects or devices should be solved. In this study, sheet-type electromagnetic wave absorbers that cause electromagnetic wave attenuation are fabricated using composites based on soft magnetic metal powder and silicon rubber to solve the problem of electromagnetic waves generated in wireless communication products operating at the frequency range of 2.4 GHz. Sendust(Fe-Si-Al) and carbonyl iron(Fe-C) were used as soft magnetic metals, and their concentrations and sheet thicknesses were varied. Using soft magnetic metal powder, a sheet is fabricated to exhibit maximum electromagnetic attenuation in the target frequency band, and a value of 34.2dB(99.9 % absorption) is achieved at the target frequency.

The recent development of information and communication technologies brings new changes to automobile traffic systems. The most typical example is the advancement of dedicated short range communication(DSRC). DSRC mainly consists of an intelligent transportation system(ITS), an electronic toll collection system(ETCS) and an advanced traveler information system(ATIS). These wireless communications often cause unnecessary electromagnetic waves, and these electromagnetic waves, in turn, cause frequent system malfunction. To solve this problem, an absorber of electromagnetic waves is suggested. In this research, various materials, such as powdered metal and iron oxides, are used to test the possibility for an effective absorption of the unnecessary electromagnetic waves. The various metal powders are made into a thin sheet form by compositing through processing. The electromagnetic characteristics(complex permittivity, complex permeability) of the fabricated sheet are measured. As a result, we achieve –6.5 dB at 940 MHz(77.6 % absorption rate) with a 1.0 mm-thickness electromagnet wave absorber, and –9.5 dB at 940 MHz(88.8 % absorption rate) with a 2.0 mm-thickness absorber.

In aluminum brazing processes, corrosive flux, which is used in preventing oxidation, is currently raising environmental concerns because it generates many pollutants such as dioxin. The brazing process involving noncorrosive flux is known to encounter difficulties because the melting temperature of the flux is similar to that of the base material. In this study, a new brazing filler material is developed based on aluminum and non-corrosive flux composite powder. To minimize the interference of consolidation aluminum alloy powder by the flux, the flux is intentionally embedded in the aluminum alloy powder using a mechanical milling process. This study demonstrates that the morphology of the composite powder can be varied according to the mixing process, and this significantly affects the relative density and mechanical properties of the final filler samples.

In this study, porous Mo-5 wt% Cu with unidirectionally aligned pores is prepared by freeze drying of camphene slurry with MoO3-CuO powders. Unidirectional freezing of camphene slurry with dispersion stability is conducted at -25℃, and pores in the frozen specimens are generated by sublimation of the camphene crystals. The green bodies are hydrogen-reduced at 750℃ and sintered at 1000℃ for 1 h. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that MoO3- CuO composite powders are completely converted to a Mo-and-Cu phase without any reaction phases by hydrogen reduction. The sintered bodies with the Mo-Cu phase show large and aligned parallel pores to the camphene growth direction as well as small pores in the internal walls of large pores. The pore size and porosity decrease with increasing composite powder content from 5 to 10 vol%. The change of pore characteristics is explained by the degree of powder rearrangement in slurry and the accumulation behavior of powders in the interdendritic spaces of solidified camphene.

Metallic tantalum powder is manufactured by reducing tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) with magnesium gas at 1,073–1,223 K in a reactor under argon gas. The high thermodynamic stability of magnesium oxide makes the reduction reaction from tantalum oxide into tantalum powder possible. The microstructure after the reduction reaction has the form of a mixture of tantalum and magnesium oxide, and the latter could be entirely eliminated by dissolving in weak hydrochloric acid. The powder size in SEM microstructure for the tantalum powder increases after acid leaching in the range of 50–300 nm, and its internal crystallite sizes are observed to be 11.5 to 24.7 nm with increasing reduction temperatures. Moreover, the optimized reduction temperature is found to be 1,173 K as the minimum oxygen concentration is approximately 1.3 wt.%.

Recently, improvement in the conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells has been achieved by decreasing emitter doping concentration, because the lightly doped emitter can effectively prevent the recombination of electrons and holes generated by solar light irradiation. This type of emitter is very thin due to the low doping concentration, thus conductive materials (i.e., silver) used for front electrodes can easily penetrate the emitter during a firing process because of their large diffusivity in silicon. This results in junction leakage currents which might reduce cell efficiencies. In this study, Al2O3-coated Ag powders were synthesized by an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method and applied to the conductive materials of the front electrode to control the junction leakage current. The Al2O3 shell obstructs the Ag diffusion into the emitter during the firing process. The powder is spherical with a core-shell structure and the thickness of the Al2O3 shell is tens of nanometers. Solar cells were fabricated using pure Ag powders or the Al2O3-coated Ag powder as front electrode materials, and the conversion efficiency and junction leakage current were compared to investigate the role of the Al2O3 shell during the firing processes.

Fe-Cr-Al powder porous metal was manufactured by using new electro-spray process. First, ultra-finefecralloy powders were produced by using the submerged electric wire explosion process. Evenly distributed colloid(0.05~0.5% powders) was dispersed on Polyurethane foam through the electro-spray process. And then degreasing andsintering processes were conduced. In order to examine the effect of cell size (200 µm, 450 µm, 500 µm) in process,pre-samples were sintered for two hours at temperature of 1450˚C, in H₂ atmospheres. A 24-hour thermo gravimetricanalysis test was conducted at 1000˚C in a 79% N₂ + 21% O₂ to investigate the high temperature oxidation behavior ofpowder porous metal. The results of the high temperature oxidation tests showed that oxidation resistance increased withincreasing cell size. In the 200 µm porous metal with a thinner strut and larger specific surface area, the depletion ofthe stabilizing elements such as Al and Cr occurred more quickly during the high-temperature oxidation compared withthe 450, 500 µm porous metals.

Freeze drying of a porous Cu-Sn alloy with unidirectionally aligned pore channels was accomplished by using a composite powder of CuO-SnO2 and camphene. Camphene slurries with CuO-SnO2 content of 3, 5 and 10 vol% were prepared by mixing with a small amount of dispersant at 50˚C. Freezing of a slurry was done at -25˚C while the growth direction of the camphene was unidirectionally controlled. Pores were generated subsequently by sublimation of the camphene during drying in air for 48 h. The green bodies were hydrogen-reduced at 650˚C and then were sintered at 650˚C and 750˚C for 1 h. XRD analysis revealed that the CuO-SnO2 powder was completely converted to Cu-Sn alloy without any reaction phases. The sintered samples showed large pores with an average size of above 100μm which were aligned parallel to the camphene growth direction. Also, the internal walls of the large pores had relatively small pores. The size of the large pores decreased with increasing CuO-SnO2 content due to the change of the degree of powder rearrangement in the slurry. The size of the small pores decreased with increase of the sintering temperature from 650˚C to 750˚C, while that of the large pores was unchanged. These results suggest that a porous alloy body with aligned large pores can be fabricated by a freeze-drying and hydrogen reduction process using oxide powders.

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.

The extraction of metallic pure vanadium powder from raw oxide has been tried by Mg-reduction. In first stage, powders as initial raw material was reduced by hydrogen gas into phase. powder was reduced in next stage by magnesium gas at 1,073K for 24 hours. After reduction reaction, the MgO component mixed with reduced vanadium powder were dissolved and removed fully in 10% HCl solution for 5 hours at room temperature. The oxygen content and particle size of finally produced vanadium powders were 0.84 wt% and 1 , respectively

A new manufacturing process of Fe-Cr-Al powder porous metal was attempted. First, ultra-fine fecralloy powders were produced by using the submerged electric wire explosion process. Evenly distributed colloid (0.05~0.5% powders) was dispersed on PU (Polyurethane) foam through the electrospray process. And then degreasing and sintering processes were conduced. In order to examine the effect of sintering temperature in process, pre-samples were sintered for two hours at temperatures of , , , and , respectively, in atmospheres. A 24-hour TGA (thermo gravimetric analysis) test was conducted at in a 79% +21% to investigate the high temperature oxidation behavior of powder porous metal. The results of the high temperature oxidation tests showed that oxidation resistance increased with increasing sintering temperature (2.57% oxidation weight gain at sintered specimen). The high temperature oxidation mechanism of newly manufactured Fe-Cr-Al powder porous metal was also discussed.

In order to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of WC-10 wt% Co insert tool alloy fabricated by PIM (Powder Injection Molding) process, the feedstock of WC-10 wt% and wax used as a kind of binder were mixed together by two blade mixer. After injection molding, the debinding process was carried out by two-steps. First, solvent extraction, in which the binder was eliminated by putting the specimen into normal hexane for 24 hrs at , and subsequently thermal debinding which was conducted at and for 6 hrs in the mixed gas of , respectively. Meantime, in order to compensate the decarburization due to hydrogen, 1.2~1.8% of carbon was added to ensure the integrity of the phase. Finally, the specimens were sintered in vacuum under different temperatures, and the relative density of 99.8% and hardness of 2100 Hv can be achieved when sintered at , even the TRS is lower than the conventional sintering process.