In this study, AlSi10Mg alloy powders are synthesized using gas atomization and sieving processes for powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing. The effect of nozzle diameter (ø = 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 8.0 mm) on the gas atomization and sieving size on the properties of the prepared powder are investigated. As the nozzle diameter decreases, the size of the manufactured powder decreases, and the uniformity of the particle size distribution improves. Therefore, the ø 4.0 mm nozzle diameter yields powder with superior properties. Spherically shaped powders can be prepared at a scale suitable for the PBF process with a particle size distribution of 10–45 μm. The Hausner ratio value of the powder is measured to be 1.24. In addition, the yield fraction of the powder prepared in this study is 26.6%, which is higher than the previously reported value of 10–15%. These results indicate that the nozzle diameter and the post-sieve process simultaneously influence the shape of the prepared powder as well as the satellite powder on its surface.

The spray characteristics of two working fluids operating with a bi-fuel injector were investigated. A bi-fuel injector simultaneously sprays two working fluids, both of which possess different properties. An effervescent atomizer containing two separated aerator tubes was employed as the bi-fuel injector. Vegetable oil and kerosene were the working fluids. The mixing ratio and ALR were the experimental parameters. The mixing ratio is the mass fraction of vegetable oil in the total amount of working fluids. The ALR represents the ratio of the atomizing gas to the working fluid mass flow ratio. In order to examine spray characteristics, the spray angle, droplet size distribution, cumulative volume fraction, Sauter Mean Diameter and span factor were measured using a high resolution video camera and a Laser Diffraction Particle Analyzer. From the experimental results, spray angle is decreased with as the ratio of kerosene to vegetable oil in working fluid is increased. Regardless of ALR, SMD was the smallest when the only working fluid was kerosene and uniformity was the most stable when the only working fluid was vegetable oil.

In this study, an effervescent atomizer capable of mixing and spraying vegetable oil and kerosene at the same time was proposed to examine the usefulness of vegetable oil and kerosene in terms of recycling of renewable energy and waste resources. The effect of nozzle exit diameter variation on the atomization characteristics such as spray angle, droplet size distribution, cumulative volume distribution, and SMD was investigated using LDPA. The results of this study showed that the spray angles decreased with increasing ALR at the same nozzle exit diameter and increased with increasing nozzle exit diameter under the same ALR condition. SMD was decreased with increasing ALR at all nozzle exit diameters, and SMD was decreased with decreasing nozzle exit diameter even under the same ALR conditions. Also, the droplet was more finely atomized when the nozzle exit diameter is reduced under the same ALR conditions and when the ALR is increased at the same nozzle exit diameter, but the uniformity of the droplets was lowered because the droplet with a larger diameter existed.

In order to apply rotary atomizer to agricultural spraying system, the motor direct coupled rotary atomizer was proposed. The effect of operating conditions such as atomizing air flow rate, working fluid flow rate, and rotation speed of spinning cup on the atomization performance was investigated for the proposed direct coupled rotary atomizer. The motor speed was controlled in the range of 6,000 to 12,000 rpm using an alternating current transformer, and the atomizing air was supplied by the compressor. In this study, LDPA was used to analyze the spray characteristics of the rotary atomizer. The representative particle diameters of D10, SMD, MMD, D90, and DMax tended to decrease as the atomizing air flow rate and the motor speed increased, but increased as the working fluid flow rate increased. Also, SMD was found to be influenced by order of atomizing air flow rate> motor speed> working fluid flow rate, and DMax was influenced by order of operating fluid supply> motor speed> atomizing air flow rate.

The spray characteristics of two working fluids operating with a bi-fuel injector were investigated. A bi-fuel injector simultaneously sprays two working fluids, both of which possess different properties. An effervescent atomizer containing two separated aerator tubes was employed as the bi-fuel injector. Vegetable oil and kerosene were the working fluids. The mixing ratio and ALR were the experimental parameters. The mixing ratio is the mass fraction of vegetable oil in the total amount of working fluids. The ALR represents the ratio of the atomizing gas to the working fluid mass flow ratio. In order to examine spray characteristics, the spray angle, droplet size distribution, cumulative volume fraction, Sauter Mean Diameter and span factor were measured using a high resolution video camera and a Laser Diffraction Particle Analyzer. From the experimental results, spray angle is decreased with as the ratio of kerosene to vegetable oil in working fluid is increased. Regardless of ALR, SMD was the smallest when the only working fluid was kerosene and uniformity was the most stable when the only working fluid was vegetable oil.

In this study, ultra-fine soft-magnetic micro-powders are prepared by high-pressure gas atomization of an Fe-based alloy, Fe-Hf-B-Nb-P-C. Spherical powders are successfully obtained by disintegration of the alloy melts under high-pressure He or N2 gas. The mean particle diameter of the obtained powders is 25.7 μm and 42.1 μm for He and N2 gas, respectively. Their crystallographic structure is confirmed to be amorphous throughout the interior when the particle diameter is less than 45 μm. The prepared powders show excellent soft magnetic properties with a saturation magnetization of 164.5 emu/g and a coercivity of 9.0 Oe. Finally, a toroidal core is fabricated for measuring the magnetic permeability, and a μr of up to 78.5 is obtained. It is strongly believed that soft magnetic powders prepared by gas atomization will be beneficial in the fabrication of high-performance devices, including inductors and motors.

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the atomization characteristics of spray from the effervescent atomizer, which has separated two aerator tubes. The atomization characteristics were examined through the influence of ALR and the changes of atomizer geometry such as nozzle orifice diameter, diffusion angle, mixing chamber volume. PDPA(Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer) was used to evaluate the atomization characteristics. During the experiments, the mass flow rate of liquid was kept constant at 2.8g/s and the mass flow rate of atomizing air was changed from 0.2 to 0.6g/s. Experimental results showed that SMD was not a linear function of ALR. While SMD is very sensitive to the changes of ALR, the changes of atomizer geometry had little effect on droplet mean diameter. As the effervescent atomizer with separated two aerator tubes is insensitive to the changes of atomizer geometry, it is expected that the effervescent atomizer with separated two aerator tubes is capable of requirements of many applications, without the drawbacks of atomization characteristics.

In this study, p-type : TAGS-85 compound powders were prepared by gas atomization process, and then their microstructures and mechanical properties were investigated. The fabricated powders were of spherical shape, had clean surface, and illustrated fine microstructure and homogeneous + GeTe solid solution. Powder X-ray diffraction results revealed that the crystal structure of the TAGS-85 sample was single rhombohedral GeTe phase, which with a space group . The grain size of the powder particles increased while the micro Vickers hardness decreased with increasing annealing temperature within the range of 573 K and 723 K due to grain growth and loss of Te. In addition, the crystal structure of the powder went through a phase transformation from rhombohedral () at low-temperature to cubic () at high-temperature with increasing annealing temperature. The micro Vickers hardness of the as-atomized powder was around 165 Hv, while it decreased gradually to 130 Hv after annealing at 673K, which is still higher than most other fabrication processes.

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.

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 experiment results show that the as-prepared Fe amorphous powders less than 90 m in size has a fully amorphous phase and its weight fraction was about 73.7%. The as-atomized amorphous Fe powders had a complete spherical shape with very clean surface. Differential scanning calorimetric results of the as-atomized Fe powders less than 90 m showed that the glass transition, T, onset crystallization, T, and super-cooled liquid range T=T-T were 512, 548 and 36, respectively. Fe amorphous powders were mixed and deformed well with 10 wt.% Cu by using AGO-2 high energy ball mill under 500 rpm.

The aging characteristics of gas atomized Mg-6 wt.% Al-1 wt.% Zn alloy were investigated and compared to those of cast Mg-6 wt.% Al alloy. The gas atomized Mg-6 wt.% Al-1wt.% Zn alloy powders had spherical morphology between 1 and 100 in diameter. After compaction under the pressure of 700 MPa at for 10 min, the Mg-6 wt.% Al-1 wt.% Zn alloy showed a grain size of approximately 40 which is smaller than that of the cast Mg-6 wt.% Al alloy, and a relative compact density of approximately 93%. After ageing, the Mg-6 wt.% Al-1 wt.% Zn alloy showed much faster peak hardness than cast Mg-6 wt.% Al alloy. The Mg-6 wt.% Al-1 wt.% Zn alloy showed the new fine precipitations with ageing time, while the cast Mg-6 wt.% Al alloy was almost similar morphology.

The hypereutectic Al-20 wt%Si powders including some amount of Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn were prepared by a gas atomization process. In order to get highly densified Al-Si bulk specimens, the as-atomized and sieved powders were extruded at , Microstructure and tensile properties of the extruded Al-Si alloys were investigated in this study. Relative density of the extruded samples was over 98%. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) in stress-strain curves of the extruded powders increased after T6 heat treatments. Elongation of the samples was also increased from 1.4% to 3.2%. The fracture surfaces of the tested pieces showed a fine microstructure and the average grain size was about

The microstructure, mechanical and electrochemical properties of plasma electrolytic coatings (PEO) coatings on Mg-4.3 wt%Zn-1.0 wt%Y and Mg-1.0 wt%Zn-2.0 wt%Y alloys prepared by gas atomization, followed by compaction at 320 for 10 min under the pressure of 700 MPa and sintering at 380 and 420 respectively for 24 h, were investigated, which was compared with the cast Mg-1.0 wt%Zn alloy. All coatings consisting of MgO and oxides showed porous and coarse surface features with some volcano top-like pores distributed disorderly and cracks between pores. In particular, the surface of coatings on Mg-1.0 wt%Zn-2.0 wt%Y alloy showed smaller area of pores and cracks compared to the Mg-4.3 wt%Zn-1.0 wt%Y and Mg-1.0 wt%Zn alloys. The cross section micro-hardness of coatings on the gas atomized Mg-Zn-Y alloys was higher than that on the cast Mg-1.0 wt%Zn alloy. Additionally, the coated Mg-1.0 wt%Zn-2.0 wt%Y alloy exhibited the best corrosion resistance in 3.5%NaCl solution. It could be concluded that the addition of Y has a beneficial effect on the formation of protective and hard coatings on Mg alloys by plasma electrolytic oxidation treatment.

Bulk amorphous materials have been intensively studied to apply for various advanced industry fields due to their high mechanical, chemical and electrical properties. These materials have been produced by several techniques such as mechanical alloying, melt spinning and gas atomization, etc. Among them, the atomization is the most potential technique for commercialization due to high cooling rate during solidification of the melt and mass productivity. However, the amorphous powders still have some limitations because of their low ductility and toughness. Therefore, intensive efforts have to be carried out to increase the ductility and toughness. In this study, the Ni-based amorphous powder was produced by the gas atomization process. And in order to increase the ductile toughness, ductile Cu phase was coated on the Ni amorphous powder by spray drying process. The characteristics of the as-synthesis powders have been examined and briefly mentioned. The master alloy with Ni57Zr20Ti16Si2Sn3 was prepared by vacum induction melting furnace with graphite crucible and mold. The atomization was conducted at 1450oC under the vacuum of 10-2 torr. The gas pressure during atomization was varied from 35 to 50 bars. After making the Ni amorphous powders, the spray drying was processed to produce the Cu -coated Ni amorphous composite powder. The amorphous powder and Cu nitrate solution were mixed together with a small amount of binder and then it was sprayed at temperature of 130oC and rotating speed of 15,000 R.P.M..

Metal powder for dust core application was developed. The powder can be produced improved high-pressure water atomization process. The process has produced powder of spherical shape and lower coercivity. The dust core obta ined shows lower core loss.

Co-based amorphous powder was produced by a new atomization process “Spinning Water Atomization Process (SWAP)”, having rapid super-cooling rate. The composition of the alloys was ((Co0.95Fe0.05)1-xCrx)75Si15B10 (x=0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075). The powders became the amorphous state even if particle size was up to about 500 μm. The coercive force of powders was about 0.35 - 0.7 Oe. Furthermore, Co-based amorphous powder cores with glass binders were made by cold-pressing and sintering methods. The initial permeability of the core in the frequency range up to 100 kHz was about 110, and the core loss at 100 kHz for Bm = 0.1 T was 350 kW/m3.

The n-type compound was newly fabricated by gas atomization and hot extrusion, which is considered to be a mass production technique of this alloy. The effect of powder size on thermoelectric properties of 0.04% doped alloy were investigated. Seebeck coefficient and Electrical resistivity increased with increasing powder size due to the decrease in carrier concentration by oxygen content. With increasing powder size, the compressive strength of alloy was increased due to the relative high density. The compound with size shows the highest power factor among the four different powder sizes. The rapidly solidified and hot extruded compound using powder size shows the highest compressive strength.

Close-coupled atomizers are of great interest and controlling their performance parameters is critical for metal powder producing and spray forming industries. In this study, designed close-coupled nozzle systems were used to investigate the effect of the nozzle types and protrusion length of the melt delivery tube on the pressure formation at the melt delivery tube tip. The observed metal flow rate was not behaving as what was earlier assumed, namely that, deeper aspiration enhanced metal flow rate. Higher aspiration pressure at the tip of the melt delivery tube increases the stability of atomization process.