• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2019

In this study, the effects of powder size and composition on the reflectance of Al-Si based alloys are presented. First, the reflectance of Al-Si bulk and powder are analyzed to confirm the effect of powder size. Results show that the bulk has a higher reflectance than that of powder because the bulk has lower surface defects. In addition, the larger the particle size, the higher is the reflectance because the interparticle space decreases. Second, the effect of composition on the reflectance by the changing composition of Al-Si-Mg is confirmed. Consequently, the reflectance of the alloy decreases with the addition of Si and Mg because dendrite Si and $Mg_2Si$ are formed, and these have lower reflectance than pure Al. Finally, the reflectance of the alloy is due to the scattering of free electrons, which is closely related to electrical conductivity. Measurements of the electrical conductivity based on the composition of the Al-Si-Mg alloy confirm the same tendency as the reflectance.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.363-369
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• 2022

AlSi10Mg alloys are being actively studied through additive manufacturing for application in the automobile and aerospace industries because of their excellent mechanical properties. To obtain a consistently high quality product through additive manufacturing, studying the flowability and spreadability of the metal powder is necessary. AlSi10Mg powder easily forms an oxide film on the powder surface and has hydrophilic properties, making it vulnerable to moisture. Therefore, in this study, AlSi10Mg powder was hydrophobically modified through silane surface treatment to improve the flowability and spreadability by reducing the effects of moisture. The improved flowability according to the number of silane surface treatments was confirmed using a Carney flowmeter. In addition, to confirm the effects of improved spreadability, the powder prior to surface treatment and that subjected to surface treatment four times were measured and compared using s self-designed recoating tester. The results of this study confirmed the improved flowability and spreadability based on the modified metal powder from hydrophilic to hydrophobic for obtaining a high-quality additive manufacturing product.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2021

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 ㎛. 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.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.460-466
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• 2014

Al-Si-SiC composite powders with intra-granular SiC particles were prepared by a gas atomization process. The composite powders were mixed with Al-Zn-Mg alloy powders as a function of weight percent. Those mixture powders were compacted with the pressure of 700 MPa and then sintered at the temperature of $565-585^{\circ}C$. T6 heat treatment was conducted to increase their mechanical properties by solid-solution precipitates. Each relative density according to the optimized sintering temperature of those powders were determined as 96% at $580^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders (composition A), 97.9% at $575^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders with 5 wt.% of Al-Si-SiC powders (composition B), and 98.2% at $570^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders with 10 wt.% of Al-Si-SiC powders (composition C), respectively. Each hardness, tensile strength, and wear resistance test of those sintered samples was conducted. As the content of Al-Si-SiC powders increased, both hardness and tensile strength were decreased. However, wear resistance was increased by the increase of Al-Si-SiC powders. From these results, it was confirmed that Al-Si-SiC/Al-Zn-Mg composite could be highly densified by the sintering process, and thus the composite could have high wear resistance and tensile strength when the content of Al-Si-SiC composite powders were optimized.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2020

Aluminum (Al) - based powders have attracted attention as key materials for 3D printing because of their excellent specific mechanical strength, formability, and durability. Although many studies on the fabrication of 3D-printed Al-based alloys have been reported, the influence of the size of raw powder materials on the bulk samples processed by selective laser melting (SLM) has not been fully investigated. In this study, AlSi10Mg powders of 65 ㎛ in average particle size, prepared by a gas atomizing process, are additively manufactured by using an SLM process. AlSi10Mg powders of 45 ㎛ average size are also fabricated into bulk samples in order to compare their properties. The processing parameters of laser power and scan speed are optimized to achieve densified AlSi10Mg alloys. The Vickers hardness value of the bulk sample prepared from 45 ㎛-sized powders is somewhat higher than that of the 65 ㎛m-sized powder. Such differences in hardness are analyzed because the reduction in melt pool size stems from the rapid melting and solidification of small powders, compared to those of coarse powders, during the SLM process. These results show that the size of the powder should be considered in order to achieve optimization of the SLM process.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.11 no.6 s.47
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• pp.462-466
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• 2004

The bi-materials composed of $Al-5wt{\%}Mg$ and its composite reinforced with SiC particles were prepared by ball-milling and subsequent sintering process. The size of powder in Al-Mg/SiCp mixture decreased with increasing ball-milling time, it was saturated above 30 h when the ball and powder was in the ratio of 30 to 1. Both $Al-5wt{\%}Mg$ powders mixture and $Al-5wt{\%}Mg/SiCp$ mixture were compacted under a pressure of 350MPa and were bonded by sintering at temperatures ranging from 873K to 1173K for 1-5h. At 873k, the sound bi-mate-rials could not be obtained. In contrast, the bi-materials with the macroscopically well-bonded interface were obtained at higher temperatures than 873K. The length of well-bonded interface became longer with increasing temperature and time, indicating the improved contact in the interface between unreinforced Al-Mg part and Al-Mg/SiCp composite part. The relative density in the bi-materials increased as the sintering temperature and time increased, and the bi-materials sintered at 1173K for 5h showed the highest density.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.109-115
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• 2000

In the present study, (10%$Al_2O_3$+5%Si)/AZ91 Mg hybrid composite was fabricated using the squeeze casting method. During squeeze casting, molten Mg was infiltrated into the preform of 10%$Al_2O_3$+5%Si and reaction product of $Mg_2Si$ intermetallic compound was formed by the reaction between molten Mg and Si powder. Microstructure has been observed and mechanical properties were evaluated for the reaction squeeze cast (RSC) hybrid composite. It was found that Si powder totally reacted with molten Mg to form $Mg_2Si$. Reinforcement ($Al_2O_3$) and the reaction product ($Mg_2Si$) are fairly uniformly distributed in Mg matrix for the squeeze cast hybrid composite. Mechanical properties were improved with hybridization of reinforcements, namely higher hardness and enhanced wear resistance comparing squeeze cast (15%$Al_2O_3$)/AZ91 Mg composite.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.354-361
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• 2007

The bi-materials with Al-Mg alloy and its composites reinforced with SiC and $Al_2O_3$ particles were prepared by conventional powder metallurgy method. The A1-5 wt%Mg and composite mixtures were compacted under $150{\sim}450\;MPa$, and then the mixtures compacted under 400 MPa were sintered at $773{\sim}1173K$ for 5h. The obtained bi-materials with Al-Mg/SiCp composite showed the higher relative density than those with $Al-Mg/Al_2O_3$ composite after compaction and sintering. Based on the results, the bi-materials compacted under 400 MPa and sintered at 873K for 5h were used for mechanical tests. In the composite side of bi-materials, the SiC particles were densely distributed compared to the $Al_2O_3$ particles. The bi-materials with Al-Mg/SiC composite showed the higher micro-hardness than those with $Al-Mg/Al_2O_3$ composite. The mechanical properties were evaluated by the compressive test. The bi-materials revealed almost the same value of 0.2% proof stress with Al-Mg alloy. Their compressive strength was lower than that of Al-Mg alloy. Moreover, impact absorbed energy of bi-materials was smaller than that of composite. However, the bi-materials with Al-Mg/SiCp composite particularly showed almost similar impact absorbed energy to $Al-Mg/Al_2O_3$ composite. From the observation of microstructure, it was deduced that the bi-materials was preferentially fractured through micro-interface between matrix and composite in the vicinity of macro-interface.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2000

In the present study,($10%Al_2O_3+5%Si$)/AZ91 Mg hybrid composite was fabricated using the squeeze casting method. During squeeze casting, Molten Mg was infiltrated into the preform of $10%Al_2O_3+5%Si$ and reaction product of $Mg_2Si$ intermetallic compound was formed by the reaction between molten Mg and Si Powder. Microstructure has been observed and mechanical properties were evaluated for the reaction squeeze cast(RSC) hybrid composite. It was found that Si powder totally reacted with molten Mg to form $Mg_2Si$. Reinforcement($Al_2O_3$) and the reaction product ($Mg_2Si$) are fairly uniformly distributed in Mg Matrix for the squeeze cast hybrid composite. Mechanical Properties were improved with hybridization of reinforcements, namely higher hardness and enhanced wear resistance comparing squeeze cast($15%Al_2O_3$)/AZ91 Mg composite.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.138-145
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• 2019

In this study, Al-Si-Mg alloys are additively manufactured using a selective laser melting (SLM) process from AlSi10Mg powders prepared from a gas-atomization process. The processing parameters such as laser scan speed and laser power are investigated for 3D printing of Al-Si-Mg alloys. The laser scan speeds vary from 100 to 2000 mm/s at the laser power of 180 and 270 W, respectively, to achieve optimized densification of the Al-Si-Mg alloy. It is observed that the relative density of the Al-Si-Mg alloy reaches a peak value of 99% at 1600 mm/s for 180 W and at 2000 mm/s for 270W. The surface morphologies of the both Al-Si-Mg alloy samples at these conditions show significantly reduced porosities compared to those of other samples. The increase in hardness of as-built Al-Si-Mg alloy with increasing scan speed and laser power is analyzed due to high relative density. Furthermore, it was found that cooling conditions after the heat-treatment for homogenization results in the change of dispersion status of Si phases in the Al-Si matrix but also affects tensile behaviors of Al-Si-Mg alloys. These results indicate that combination between SLM processing parameters and post-heat treatment should be considered a key factor to achieve optimized Al-Si alloy performance.