• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1197-1202
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• 2002

In order to develope the porous $K_2Ti_6O_13$ whisker preform with good strength, the pore characteristics and compressive strength were investigated as a function of spark plasma sintering temperature. As a result, high porous whisker preform were successfully fabricated by sintering at 900∼950${\circ}C$ for 10 min under a pressure of 40 MPa, heating rate of 50${\circ}C$/min and on-off pulse type of 12:2. The whisker preform prepared under above optimum condition showed relatively high compressive strength of 174∼266 MPa, despite of high porosity ranging from 15% to 37%. This improvement in strength was considered to be mainly due to the spark-plasma discharges and the self-heating action between whiskers. The compressive strength of whisker preform, fabricated at sintering temperature less than 900${\circ}C$, showed 80∼100 MPa. This is low strength level less than one half times compared with whisker preform fabricated at 900∼950${\circ}C$. The whisker preform fabricated at 1000${\circ}C$ showed the highest compressive strength of 523 MPa, but resulted in low porosity of ∼5%. Based on above results, it was considered that spark plasma sintering was an effective method for developing high strength and porosity of whisker preform.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2017

In this paper, $Si_3N_4/hBN$ ceramics with various hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) contents (0, 10, 20, or 30 wt%) were fabricated via spark plasma sintering (SPS) at $1500^{\circ}C$, 50MPa, and 10m holding time. The material properties such as the relative density, hardness, and fracture toughness were systematically evaluated according to the hBN content in the $Si_3N_4/hBN$ ceramics. The results show that relative density, hardness, and fracture toughness continuously decreased as the hBN content increased. In addition, peak-step drilling (with tool diameter $500{\mu}m$) was performed to observe the effects of hBN content in micro-hole shape and cutting force. A machined hole diameter of $510{\mu}m$ (entrance) and stable cutting force were obtained at 30 wt% hBN content. Consequently, $Si_3N_4/30wt%$ hBN ceramic is a feasible material upon which to apply semi-conductor components, and this study is very meaningful for determining correlations between material properties and machining performance.