Metals such as stainless steel and alloy 600 are used as structures and materials in nuclear power plants due to their excellent mechanical properties and heat resistance. And recently thermal and mechanical cutting technologies are being actively researched and developed for dismantling NPP. Among them, the mechanical cutting method has the advantage of less secondary waste generation such as fume and fine dust, but according to the wider the cutting range, the reaction force and the cutting device size are increased. In this paper, plasma assisted milling has been proposed to reduce the reaction force and device size, and the plasma efficiency was measured for SUS 316L. The plasma torch was operated at the level of 3 to 4 kW so that it was heated only without cutting. And the feedrate was set at 150 to 250 mm/min. The test confirmed that the plasma efficiency was 35% about SUS 316L, and it is expected that the numerical analysis using these test results can be used as basic data for plasma assisted milling.

Various cutting technologies such as thermal and mechanical are being researched and developed to dismantle shutdown nuclear power plants. Each technology has the following advantages and disadvantages. The thermal cutting method has low reaction force and fast cutting speed, but secondary waste such as fume, dross, and fine dust is generated. The mechanical cutting method has the advantage of low generation of secondary waste such as fume, dross, and fine dust, but has the disadvantage of increasing the size of the device due to its large reaction force. In this study, the performance of plasma milling robot cutting technology for nuclear power plant materials was evaluated. First, before applying plasma auxiliary milling to the robot, tests were conducted on SUS 316 L and Alloy 600 to secure processing conditions such as plasma torch output and transfer speed. The test have shown that the mechanical strength was decreased of each material at the output power of the plasma torch of 4.4 and 8.4 kW, the transfer speed of 200 and 100 mm/min. Based on the test results, a plasma milling was attached to the robot and tested, and it was confirmed that even a small robot with a load of 140 kg can cut without any major problems.

In this study, using the plasma spray method, tensile and compression fatigue tests are performed in saline solution to examine the effect of Ti undercoat on corrosion fatigue behavior of alumina-coated specimens. The alumina-coated material using Ti in the undercoat shows better corrosion fatigue strength than the base material in the entire stress amplitude range. Fatigue cracking of UT specimens occurs in the recess formed by grit-blasting treatment and progresses toward the base metal. Subsequently, the undercoat is destroyed at a stage where the deformation of the undercoat cannot follow the crack opening displacement. The residual stress of the UT specimen has a tensile residual stress up to about 100 μm below the surface of the base material; however, when the depth exceeds 100 μm, the residual stress becomes a compressive residual stress. In addition, the inside of the spray coating film is compressive residual stress, which contributes to improving the fatigue strength characteristics. A hardened layer due to grit-blasting treatment is formed near the surface of the UT specimen, contributing to the improvement of the fatigue strength characteristics. Since the natural potential of Ti spray coating film is slightly higher than that of the base material, it exhibits excellent corrosion resistance; however, when physiological saline intrudes, a galvanic battery is formed and the base material corrodes preferentially.

Porous metals demonstrate not only excessively low densities, but also novel physical, thermal, mechanical, electrical, and acoustic properties. Thus, porous metals exhibit exceptional performance, which are useful for diesel particulate filters, heat exchangers, and noise absorbers. In this study, SUS316L foam with 90% porosity and 3,000 μm pore size is successfully manufactured using the electrostatic powder coating (ESPC) process. The mean size of SUS316L powders is approximately 12.33 μm. The pore properties are evaluated using SEM and Archimedes. As the quantity of powder coating increases, pore size decreases from 2,881 to 1,356 μm. Moreover, the strut thickness and apparent density increase from 423.7 to 898.3 μm and from 0.278 to 0.840 g/cm3, respectively. It demonstrates that pore properties of SUS316L powder porous metal are controllable by template type and quantity of powder coating.

Chromium nitride (CrN) samples with two different layer structures (multilayer and single layer) were coated on bipolar plates of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) using the reactive sputtering method. The effects with respect to layer structure on corrosion resistance and overall cell performance were investigated. A continuous and thin chromium nitride layer (Cr0.48 N0.52) was formed on the surface of the SUS 316L when the nitrogen flow rate was 10 sccm. The electrochemical stability of the coated layers was examined using the potentiodynamic and potentiostatic methods in the simulated corrosive circumstances of the PEMFC under 80˚C. Interfacial contact resistance (ICR) between the CrN coated sample and the gas diffusion layer was measured by using Wang's method. A single cell performance test was also conducted. The test results showed that CrN coated SUS316L with multilayer structure had excellent corrosion resistance compared to single layer structures and single cell performance results with 25 cm2 in effective area also showed the same tendency. The difference of the electrochemical properties between the single and multilayer samples was attributed to the Cr interlayer layer, which improved the corrosion resistance. Because the coating layer was damaged by pinholes, the Cr layer prevented the penetration of corrosive media into the substrate. Therefore, the CrN with a multilayer structure is an effective coating method to increase the corrosion resistance and to decrease the ICR for metallic bipolar plates in PEMFC.

The MIM industry is currently focusing on parts that are used in automobiles and medical instruments. Many of the parts in these categories are very small and often not easy to machine because of its complex geometry. Therefore MIM is well suited for the production of these parts. We tested the sinterability of SUS316L ultra fine powders (3,4, 6, 8micron) produced by ATMIX high-pressure water-atomization, and it showed excellent results. A density of 97% theoretical was obtained by sintering at 1373K when using the ultra fine powder (3micron). Specifically, the finer the powder size, higher was the sintered density. The surface roughness and accuracy are also greatly improved with ATMIX ultra fine powder.

Granulated powders, prepared from PF-5F(D50=4μm), PF-10F(D50=6μm) and PF-20F(D50=10μm) water atomized powder, were compacted, debound and sintered to evaluate the properties of sintered parts. As a result, the relative sintered density of about 97% at sintering temperature of 1423K was obtained. It can be considered that by using granulated finer particle size powder, mechanical properties of sintered parts were also improved.

SUS316L stainless steel, commercial pure Titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy powders applied by Mechanical Milling (MM) process are sintered by Hot Roll Sintering (HRS) process. Microstructure and mechanical properties of those HRS materials is investigated. The microstructures of materials produced by HRS process consist of fine grains and work-hardened structure, that is, the hybrid microstructure. Tensile test of the HRS material demonstrated the good mechanical properties. These results show that the HRS process is very effective to the improvement of mechanical properties in the SUS316L stainless steel, commercial pure Titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

우리나라 경제의 성장을 이끈 기계산업은 2015년 현재 생산액 100조원, 사업체수 9,526개사, 종사자수 31만 5천명, 부가가치 39조원으로써 제조업 중 생산액 5위, 사업체수 2위, 종사자수 3위, 부가가치 4위에 위치하고 있다. 이러한 기계산업에 있어 공작기계를 이용해 금속을 원하는 모양으로 만드는 금속가공은 반드시 필요한 공정으로 금속가공 시 가공 장비의 수명 연장 및 가공물의 품질 향상을 위해 칩이 형성되는 영역에 적용되어 윤활 및 냉각작용을 하는 절삭유(Soluble Cutting Fluids, SCF)가 이용되고 있다. 절삭유는 수용성 및 비수용성으로 나뉘는데 비수용성 절삭유의 경우 윤활성은 우수하나 경제성 및 발연, 발화등의 문제점이 있으며, 수용성 절삭유는 윤활성은 비교적 떨어지나 냉각성과 경제성이 우수하다는 장점이 있다. 또한 절삭유는 기능 향상을 위해 PAH, 방부제, 파라핀계 염소, 아질산염 등 20~30개의 첨가제가 사용된다. 이는 중추신경계 장애, 이비인후 자극, 피부염 발생 등을 일으킬 위험성이 크다고 알려져 있으며, 고농도의 유기성분 및 질소화합물로 인해 수계에 유출시 부영양화, 녹조현상 등과 같은 문제를 일으킬 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 전기화학적 처리를 통해 반응시간에 따른 폐수용성 절삭유의 COD 및 T-N의 제거율 변화를 분석하였다. 전기화학적 처리의 중요 인자인 전극은 비교적 가격이 저렴하고 용출량이 낮은 것으로 알려져 있는 SUS316전극을 이용하였으며 자세한 실험 조건을 Table 1에, 연구에 사용한 장치의 모식도를 Fig. 1에 나타내었다.