Effective control of the heat generated from electronics and semiconductor devices requires a high thermal conductivity and a low thermal expansion coefficient appropriate for devices or modules. A method of reducing the thermal expansion coefficient of Cu has been suggested wherein a ceramic filler having a low thermal expansion coefficient is applied to Cu, which has high thermal conductivity. In this study, using pressureless sintering rather than costly pressure sintering, a polymer solution synthesis method was used to make nano-sized Cu powder for application to Cu matrix with an AlN filler. Due to the low sinterability, the sintered Cu prepared from commercial Cu powder included large pores inside the sintered bodies. A sintered Cu body with Zn, as a liquid phase sintering agent, was prepared by the polymer solution synthesis method for exclusion of pores, which affect thermal conductivity and thermal expansion. The pressureless sintered Cu bodies including Zn showed higher thermal conductivity (180 W/m·K) and lower thermal expansion coefficient (15.8×10−6/℃) than did the monolithic synthesized Cu sintered body.

In this study, Fe-Cu-C alloy is sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The sintering conditions are 60 MPa pressure with heating rates of 30, 60 and 9oC/min to determine the influence of heating rate on the mechanical and microstructure properties of the sintered alloys. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the sintered Fe-Cu-C alloy is investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The temperature of shrinkage displacement is changed at 450oC with heating rates 30, 60, and 90oC/min. The temperature of the shrinkage displacement is finished at 650oC when heating rate 30oC/min, at 700oC when heating rate 60oC/min and at 800oC when heating rate 90oC/min. For the sintered alloy at heating rates of 30, 60, and 90oC/min, the apparent porosity is calculated to be 3.7%, 5.2%, and 7.7%, respectively. The hardness of the sintered alloys is investigated using Rockwell hardness measurements. The objective of this study is to investigate the densification behavior, porosity, and mechanical properties of the sintered Fe-Cu-C alloys depending on the heating rate.

Cu-Mn compacts are fabricated by the pulsed current activated sintering method (PCAS) for sputtering target application. For fabricating the compacts, optimized sintering conditions such as the temperature, pulse ratio, pressure, and heating rate are controlled during the sintering process. The final sintering temperature and heating rate required to fabricate the target materials having high density are 700oC and 80oC/min, respectively. The heating directly progresses up to 700oC with a 3 min holding time. The sputtering target materials having high relative density of 100% are fabricated by employing a uniaxial pressure of 60 MPa and a sintering temperature of 700oC without any significant change in the grain size. Also, the shrinkage displacement of the Cu-Mn target materials considerably increases with an increase in the pressure at sintering temperatures up to 700oC.

Porous metallic glass compact (PMGC) are developed by electro-discharge sintering (EDS) process of gas atomized Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 metallic glass powder under of 0.2 kJ generated by a 450 μF capacitor being charged to 0.94 kV. Functional iron-oxides are formed and growth on the surface of PMGCs via hydrothermal synthesis. It is carried out at 150oC for 48hr with distilled water of 100 mL containing Fe ions of 0.18 g/L. Consequently, two types of iron oxides with different morphology which are disc-shaped Fe2O3 and needle-shaped Fe3O4 are successfully formed on the surface of the PMGCs. This finding suggests that PMGC witih hydrothermal technique can be attractive for the practical technology as a new area of structural and functional materials. And they provide a promising road map for using the metallic glasses as a potential functional application.

Porous W with controlled pore structure was fabricated by thermal decomposition and hydrogen reduction process of PMMA beads and WO3 powder compacts. The PMMA sizes of 8 and 50 μm were used as pore forming agent for fabricating the porous W. The WO3 powder compacts with 20 and 70 vol% PMMA were prepared by uniaxial pressing and sintered for 2 h at 1200oC in hydrogen atmosphere. TGA analysis revealed that the PMMA was decomposed at about 400oC and WO3 was reduced to metallic W at 800oC. Large pores in the sintered specimens were formed by thermal decomposition of spherical PMMA, and their size was increased with increase in PMMA size and the amount of PMMA addition. Also the pore shape was changed from spherical to irregular form with increasing PMMA contents due to the agglomeration of PMMA in the powder mixing process.

During sintering of Ni-electrode multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), the Ni electrode often becomes discontinuous because of its lower sintering temperature relative to that of BaTiO3. In an attempt to retard the sintering of Ni, we introduced passivation of the Ni powder. To find the optimal passivation conditions, a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted in air. After passivation at 250oC for 11 h in air, a nickel oxide shell with a thickness of 4- 5 nm was formed on nickel nanoparticles of 180 nm size. As anticipated, densification of the compacts of the passivated Ni/NiO core-shell powder was retarded: the starting temperature of densification increased from ~400oC to ~600oC in a 97N2-3H2 (vol %) atmosphere. Grain growth was also retarded during sintering at temperatures of 750 and 1000oC. When the sintering atmosphere was changed from wet 99.93N2-0.07H2 to wet 99.98N2-0.02H2, the average grain size decreased at the same sintering temperature. The conductivity of the passivated powder sample sintered at 1150oC for 8 h in wet 99.93N2-0.07H2 was measured to be 3.9 × 104 S/cm, which is comparable with that, 4.6 × 104 S/ cm, of the Ni powder compact without passivation. These results demonstrate that passivation of Ni is a viable means of retarding sintering of a Ni electrode and hence improving its continuity in the fabrication of BaTiO3-based multi-layer ceramic capacitors.

This study considered the effect of the heat treatment temperature on the compressive strength of coal powder compacts affected by density, porosity, and crystallinity. Coal powder compacts were made by pressing of milled coal powder and were heat treated at 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000℃. The density and porosity of the heat treated specimens at each temperature were measured using the Archimedes method and changes in crystallinity were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy. Increases in compressive strength at 600℃ or higher temperatures were proportionally related to increases in the density and the degree of crystallinity.

Green strength is an important property of powders since high green strength guarantees easy and safe handling before sintering. The green strength of a powder compact is related to mainly mechanical and surface characters, governed by interlocking of the particles. In this study, the effect of powder surface roughness on the green strength of iron powders was investigated using a transverse rupture test. Three-dimensional laser profiler was employed for quantitative analyses of the surface roughness. Two different surface conditions, i.e. surface roughness, of powders were compared. The powders having rough surfaces show higher green strength than the round surface powders since higher roughness leads increasing interlocked area between the contacting powders.

Electro-Discharge Sintering (EDS) employs a high-voltage/high-current-density pulse of electrical energy, discharged from a capacitor bank, to instantaneously consolidate powders. In the present study, a single pulse of 0.57-1.1 kJ/0.45 g-atomized spherical powders in size range of 10~30 and consisting of -(Ti, Zr) and icosahedral phases were applied to examine the structural evolution of icosahedral phase during EDS. Structural investigation reveals that high electrical input energy facilitates complete decomposition of icosahedral phase into C14 laves and -(Ti, Zr) phases. Moreover, critical input energy inducing decomposition of the icosahedral phase during EDS depends on the size of the powder. Porous Ti and W compacts have been fabricated by EDS using rectangular and spherical powders upon various input energy at a constant capacitance of in order to verify influence of powder shape on microstructure of porous compacts. Besides, generated heat () during EDS, which is measured by an oscilloscope, is closely correlated with powder size.

In this study, Ti powders were fabricated from Ti scrap by the Hydrogenation-Dehydrogenation (HDH) method.The Ti powders were prepared from the spark plasma sintering (SPS) and their microstructure was investigated.Hydrogenation reactions of Ti scrap occurred at near 450oC with a sudden increase in the reaction temperature and thedecreasing pressure of hydrogen gas during the hydrogenation process in the furnace. The dehydrogenation process was alsocarried out at 750oC for 2 hrs in a vacuum of 10-4torr. After the HDH process, deoxidation treatment was carried out withthe Ca (purity: 99.5%) at 700oC for 2 hrs in the vacuum system. It was found that the oxidation content of Ti powder thatwas deoxidized with Ca showed noticeably lower values, compared to the content obtained by the HDH process. In orderto fabricate the Ti compacts, Ti powder was sintered under an applied uniaxial punch pressure of 40 MPa in the range of900-1200oC for 5 min under a vacuum of 10-4torr. The relative density of the compact was 99.5% at 1100oC and the tensilestrength decreased with increasing sintering temperature. After sintering, all of the Ti compacts showed brittle fracturebehavior, which occurred in an elastic range with short plastic yielding up to a peak stress. Ti improved the corrosionresistance of the Ti compacts, and the Pd powders were mixed with the HDH Ti powders.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of WC-3wt% Co cemented carbides, fabricated by a sparkplasma sintering (SPS) process, were investigated in this study. The WC-3wt%Co powders were sintered at900~1100oC for 5min under 40MPa in high vacuum. The density and hardness were increased as the sinteringtemperature increased. WC-3wt%Co compacts with a relative density of 97.1% were successfully fabricated at1100oC. The fracture toughness and hardness of a compact sintered at 1100oC were 21.6MPa·m1/2 and4279Hv, respectively.

In this study, tantalum (Ta) compacts were fabricated in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) process and their microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. Ta compacts with a density of 99% were successfully fabricated by controlling the sintering conditions of the current and the temperature. The density and hardness were increased as the sintering temperature increased. The Ta2C compound was observed at the surface of the compacts due to the contact between the Ta powder and graphite mold during the sintering process. The main fracture mode showed a mixed type with intergranular and transgranular modes having some roughness.

Dry sliding wear behavior of electro-pressure sintered Co-Fe, Co-Ni and Co-Fe-Ni compacts was investigated. Pin-on-disk wear tests were performed on the sintered compacts disk specimens against alumina and silica ball counterparts at various loads ranging from 3N to 12N. Two sliding speeds of 0.1m/sec and 0.2m/sec and a fixed sliding distance of 1,000m were employed. Worn surfaces and cross sections of them were examined by a scanning electron microscopy, and wear mechanism of the compacts was investigated. Effects of the oxide layer that was formed on wearing surface of the compacts on the wear were also studied.

Homogeneous microstructures of the PM compacts are difficult to attain when mixed elemental powders are used. This study examined the microstructures of pressed-and-sintered and MIM products that contain Ni and Mo.Ni-rich areas, which were lean in carbon and were soft and were found easily in regular specimens. Gaps or cracks near the Ni-rich or Mo-rich areas were also frequently observed. This problem worsened when Ni and Mo particles were large and were irregular in shape. By using ball milling treatment and ferroalloy powders, the microstructure homogeneity and mechanical properties were improved. The addition of 0.5wt%Cr further improved the distribution of Ni because Cr reduced the repulsion effect between nickel and carbon. With the elimination of Ni-rich areas, more bainites and martensites were formed and mechanical properties were significantly improved.

Two different commercial aluminium powder grades have been densified by direct hot extrusion. The extrusion temperature was 425 °C, with an extrusion ratio of 1:16. Prior to extrusion, some green compacts were pre-sintered (500 °C). The evolution of the extrusion load during the process and the hardness of the final products have been investigated. Additionally, microstructural characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) was carried out. The obtained results evidence grain refinement. Additionally, inter-metallic precipitation, dynamic recovery and geometric dynamic recrystallization take place depending on some process variables, powder composition, heat treatment, strain ...

Discrete element analysis is used to map various log-normal particle size distributions into measures of the in-sphere pore size distribution. Combinations evaluated range from monosized spheres to include bimodal mixtures and various log-normal distributions. The latter proves most useful in providing a mapping of one distribution into the other (knowing the particle size distribution we want to predict the pore size distribution). Such metrics show predictions where the presence of large pores is anticipated that need to be avoided to ensure high sintered properties.