In order to improve the weak mechanical properties of cast Mg alloys, Mg- (at%) alloy powders were synthesized using gas atomization, a typical rapid solidification process. The powders consist of fine dendrite structures less than 3 in arm spacing. In order to fabricate a bulk form, the Mg powders were compacted using magnetic pulse compaction (MPC) under various processing parameters of pressure and temperature. The effects of the processing parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties were systematically investigated.

In this paper, rapid solidified Mg-4.3Zn-0.7Y (at.%) alloy powders were prepared using an inert gas atomizer, followed by a severe plastic deformation technique of high pressure torsion (HPT) for consolidation of the powders. The gas atomized powders were almost spherical in shape, and grain size was as fine as less than due to rapid solidification. Plastic deformation responses during HPT were simulated using the finite element method, which shows in good agreement with the analytical solutions of a strain expression in torsion. Varying the HPT processing temperature from ambient to 473 K, the behavior of powder consolidation, matrix microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the compacts was investigated. The gas atomized powders were deformed plastically as well as fully densified, resulting in effective grain size refinements and enhanced microhardness values.

The long-period stacking order (LPSO) structures and stacking faults (SFs) in rapidly solidified powder metallurgy (RS P/M) Mg97Zn1Y2 alloy were investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) observations. The 18R-type LPSO structure with a stacking sequence of ACBCBCBACACACBABAB and a period of 4.86 nm was observed in the as-extruded RS P/M Mg97Zn1Y2 alloy. After annealing at 773 K for 5 hr, the 18R-type LPSO structure was transformed to the 14H-type LPSO structure with a stacking sequence of ABABABACBCBCBC and a period of 3.64 nm. The 24R-type LPSO structure containing 24 atomic layers of ABABABABCACACACABCBCBCBC with period of 6.18 nm coexists with the 14H-type LPSO structure in the same grains. The LPSO structures contain intrinsic Type II SFs such as BCB/CABA and ABA/CBCB stacking sequences of a closely packed plane.

In this study, the bottom-up powder metallurgy and the top-down severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques for manufacturing bulk nanomaterials were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement without grain growth of rapidly solidified Al-20 wt% Si alloy powders during consolidation processing. Continuous equal channel multi-angular processing (C-ECMAP) was proposed to improve low productivity of conventional ECAP, one of the most promising method in SPD. As a powder consolidation method, C-ECMAP was employed. A wide range of experimental studies were carried out for characterizing mechanical properties and microstructures of the ECMAP processed materials. It was found that effective properties of high strength and full density maintaining nanoscale microstructure are achieved. The proposed SPD processing of powder materials can be a good method to achieve fully density and nanostructured materials.

In this study, bottom-up type powder processing and top-down type SPD (severe plastic deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement of Al-20 wt% Si powders without grain growth, which was considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. ECAP (Equal channel angular pressing), one of the most promising method in SPD, was used for the powder consolidation. The powder ECAP processing with 1, 2, 4 and 8 passes was conducted for 10 and 20 It was found by microhardness, compression tests and micro-structure characterization that high mechanical strength could be achieved effectively as a result of the well bonded powder contact surface during ECAP process. The SPD processing of powders is a viable method to achieve both fully density and nanostructured materials.

In this paper processing and mechanical properties of Al-20 wt％ Si alloy was studied. A bulk form of Al-20Si alloy was prepared by gas atomizing powders having the powder size of 106-145 and powder extrusion. The powder extrudate was subsequently equal channel angular pressed up to 8 passes in order to refine grain and Si particle. The microstructure of the gas atomized powders, powder extrudates and equal channel angular pressed samples were investigated using a scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The mechanical properties of the bulk sample were measured by compressive tests and a micro Victors hardness test. Equal channel angular pressing was found to be effective in matrix grain and Si particle refinement, which enhanced the strength and hardness of the Al-2OSi alloy without deteriorating ductility in the range of experimental strain of 30％.

In this study the changes of the hardness and microstructures during aging at 120 of an RS-P/M Al-5.6wt%Zn-2.0wt%Mg-1.3wt%Zr-1.0wt%Mn-0.25wt%Cu alloy were studied using a transmission electron microscopy. The hardness increased rapidly at early stage of aging and reached the maximun when the specimen was aged for 24 hr. The many irregular-shaped and rod-shaped dispersoids with 0.1-0.4 m in length were observed in the as-extruded alloy. The dark particles with 2-3 nm in size were observed in aged specimen for 5hr and those are thought to be G.P.zones or precursor of precipitates. In aged specimen for 24 hr, the phases were distributed homogeneously within the matrix and the PFZ with 30-40 nm in width was observed along the grain boundary. With further aging, the width of PFZ increased and phases were also detected within the matrix.

Optical microstructures and mechanical properties of Na gas atomized Al-20Si-5Fe alloying powder and its hot extrudates were studied on 3 different types of powder size distribution. This powder showed the size distribution of 10~210㎛. Also the microstructures of α-Al, primary and eutectic Si and needle shaped intermetallic compounds were observed by optical microscope. These needle shaped intermetallic compounds were identified as δ-AI₄FeSi₂ by XRD and EDX analysis. The ultimate tensile strength(UTS) of these alloy extrudates was increased from 324 to 390 MPa with decreasing powder size range from 120~210㎛ to 10~64㎛. A value of Micro-vic-kers hardness was simillar to the result of UTS. These extrudates showed better wear resistance than those of Al-20Si-2X(X : Ni, Cr, Zr), although they are insensitive to the size distribution. These results indicate that the presentation of δ-AI₄FeSi₂ intermetallic compounds contributed to the wear resistance improvement.