• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.176-181
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• 2003

Rapid densification of a SiC powder with additive 0.5 wt% $B_4$C was conducted by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The unique features of the process are the possibilities of using very fast heating rate and short holding time to obtain fully dense materials. The heating rate and applied pressure were kept to be $100^{\circ}C$/min and 40 MPa, while sintering temperature and soaking time varied to 1800, 1850, 1900 and $1950^{\circ}C$ and 10, 20 and 30 min, respectively. All of the SPS-sintered specimens at $1950^{\circ}C$ reached near-theoretical density. The XRD found that 3C-to-6H transformation at $1850^{\circ}C$. The microstructures of the rapidly densified SiC ceramics consisted of duplex microstructure with ultrafine equiaxed grains under 2 $\mu\textrm{m}$ and elongated grains of 0.5∼2 $\mu\textrm{m}$ wide, length 3∼10 $\mu\textrm{m}$. The biaxial strength increased with the increase of sintering time. Strength of 392.7 MPa was obtained with the fully densified specimen sintered at $1950^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, in agreement with the general tendency that strength increases with decreases pore. On the other hand, the fracture toughness shows the value of 2.17∼2.34 MPa$.$$m^{1/2}$ which might be due to the transgranular fracture mode.

• 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 Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.144-148
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• 2002

Hydroxyapatite/titanium composites were prepared as 4-layered functionally graded materials (FGM) using a spark plasma sintering (SPS) apparatus. The maximum density and the biaxial strength of hydroxyapatite/titanium composites were achieved by SPS with a holding time 8 minutes at $1200^{\circ}C$. However, the hydroxyapatite was decomposed tetracalcium phosphate (TetCP) at $1100^{\circ}C$, and calcium titanate compounds ($CaTiO_3$) were formed. When titanium was added to hydroxyapatite, decomposition of hydroxyapatite was occurred easily at the low temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.516-521
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• 2016

Mo-Cu alloys have been widely used for heat sink materials, vacuum technology, automobile, and many other applications due to their excellent physical and electric properties. Especially, Mo-Cu composites with 5 ~ 20 wt.% copper are widely used for the heavy duty service contacts due to their excellent properties like low coefficient of thermal expansion, wear resistance, high temperature strength, and prominent electrical and thermal conductivity. In most of the applications, highly-dense Mo-Cu materials with homogeneous microstructure are required for better performance. In this study, Mo-Cu alloys were prepared by PBM (planetary ball milling) and SPS (spark plasma sintering). The effect of Cu with contents of 5~20 wt.% on the microstructure and thermal properties of Mo-Cu alloys was investigated.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2005

Mechanical alloying using high-energy ball mill and subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS) process was applied to Al-Fe-Cr and Al-Fe-Mo powder mixture to investigate effects of Cr and Mo addition on thermal stability of Al-Fe, and thereby to enhance its thermal stability up to $500^{\circC}$. Various analytical techniques including micro-Vickers hardness test, SEM, TEM, X-ray diffractometry and corrosion test were carried out. It was found that addition of Cr and Mo to Al-Fe system played a role of grain growth inhibitor of matrix Al and some precipitates such as $Al_3Fe$ during SPS and subsequent heat treatment. The inhibition of grain growth resulted in increased Vickers hardness and thermal stability up to $500^{\circC}$ comparing to those of Al-Fe alloy system.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2005

Mechanical alloying using high-energy ball mill and subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS) process was applied to understand mechanical alloying processing of Al-Fe alloy system. The thermal stability of mechanically alloyed Al-Fe alloy was intended to be enhanced by SPS process. Various analytical techniques including particle size analysis, density measurement, micro-Vickers hardness test, SEM, TEM, and X-ray diffractometry were adopted to find optimum processing conditions for mechanical alloying and subsequent SPS and to estimate thermal stability of the prepared alloy. It was found from the treatment of mechanically alloyed Al-8wt.%Fe powder mixture that needle-shaped $Al_3Fe$ precipitates was formed in the Al-Fe matrix, and the alloy compact showed enhanced densification and reached its full density with little loss of its fine microstructure. After heat treatment at $500^{\circC}$, it was also shown that the thermal stability of Al-8wt.%Fe alloy fabricated in the present study was enhanced, which was due to its fine microstructure developed by fast densification of SPS.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.469-475
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• 2012

A high-energy mechanical milling (HEMM) process was introduced to improve sinter-ability, and rapid sintering of spark plasma sintering (SPS) under pressure was used to make ultra fine grain (UFG) of Ti-Nb-Mo-CPP composites, which have bio-attractive elements, for increasing mechanical properties. Ti-Nb-Mo-CPP composites were successfully fabricated by SPS at $1000^{\circ}C$ within 5 minutes under 70 MPa using HEMMed powders. The Vickers hardness of the composites increased with increased milling time and addition of CPP contents. Biocompatibility and corrosion resistance of the Ti-Nb-Mo alloys were improved by addition of CPP, and the Ti-35%Nb-10%Mo-10%CPP alloy had better biocompatibility and corrosion resistance than the Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloy.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.365-372
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• 2010

The evolution of sinterability, microstructure and mechanical properties for the spark plasma sintered(SPS) Ti from commercial pure titanium(CP-Ti) was studied. The densification of titanium with 200 mesh and 400 mesh pass powder was achieved by SPS at $750{\sim}1100^{\circ}C$ under 10 MPa pressure and the flowing $H_2$+Ar mixed gas atmosphere. The microstructure of Ti sintered up to $800^{\circ}C$ consisted of equiaxed grains. In contrast, the growth of large elongated grains was shown in sintered bodies at $900^{\circ}C$ with the 400 mesh pass powder and the lamella grains microstructure had been developed by increasing sintering temperature. The Vickers hardness of 240~270 HV and biaxial strength of 320~340 MPa were found for the specimen prepared at $950^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.8 s.279
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• pp.567-574
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• 2005

Densification of SiC powder with additives of total amount of2, 4, 8 $wt\%$ Al-B-C was carried out by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). The unique features of the process are the possibilities of a very fast heating rate and a short holding time to obtain fully dense materials. The heating rate and applied pressure were kept at $100^{\circ}C/min$ and 40 MPa, while the sintering temperature and holding time varied from 1700 - $1800^{\circ}C$ for 10 - 40 min, respectively. The SPS-sintered specimens with different amount of Al-B-C at $1800^{\circ}C$ reached near-theoretical density. The $3C{\rightarrow}6H,\;15R{\rightarrow}4H$ phase transformation of SiC was enhanced by increasing the additive amount. The microstructure of SiC sintered up to $1750^{\circ}C$ consisted of fine equiaxed grains. In contrast, the growth of large elongated grains in small matrix grains was shown in sintered bodies at $1800^{\circ}C$, and the plate-like grains interlocking microstructure had been developed by increasing the holding time at $1800^{\circ}C$. The grain growth rate decreases with increasing amount of Al-B-C in SiC starting powder, however, the both of volume fraction and aspect ratio of large grains in sintered body increased.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2004

In the present study, newly developed spark plasma sintering(SPS) technique was introduced to refine the grain size of ${\gamma}$-based TiAl intermetallic compounds. Ti-46Al-1.5Mo and Ti-46Al-1.5Mo-0.2C(at%) prealloyed powders were produced by mechanical milling(MM) in high-energy attritor. The mechanically milled powders were characterized by XRD and SEM for the microstructural evolution as a function of milling time. And then, the MMed powders were sintered by both spark plasma sintering and hot pressing in vacuum (HP). After the sintering process, MM-SPSed specimens were heat-treated in a vacuum furnace (SPS-VHT) and in the SPS equipment(MM-SPS) for microstructural control. It was found from microstrutural observation that the microstructure consisting of equiaxed ${\gamma}$-TiAl with a few hundred nanometer in average size and ${\alpha}_2-Ti_3Al$ particles were formed after both sintering processes. It was also revealed from hardness test and three-point bending test that the effect of grain refinement on the hardness and bending strength is much higher than that of carbon addition. The fully lamellar microstructures, which is less than $80{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by SPS-VHT process, and the fully lamellar microstructure which is less than $100{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by MM-SPS for a relatively shorter heat-treatment time.