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％.

The effect of Pb addition on microstructure and wear resistance was studied in rapidly solidified Al-20Si-5Fe-xPb(x=2, 4, 6 wt.%) alloys. The R/S Al-20Si-5Fe-xPb (x=2, 4, 6 wt.%) alloys showed a fine and homogeneous microstructure and an improved wear property compared with Al-20Si-5Fe alloy, while no significant change in UTS (Ultimate Tensile Strength) was shown. Contribution of the dispersoids on the wear property was discussed by showing the plastic deformation layers formed during wear track.

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.