• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2012

Research into the development of high strength (1 GPa) and superior formability, such as total elongation (10%), and stretch-flangeability (50%) in hot-rolled steel was conducted with a thermomechanically controlled hot-rolling process. To improve the overall mechanical properties simultaneously, low-carbon steel using precipitation hardening of Ti-Nb-V multimicroalloying elements was employed. And, ideal microstructural characteristics for the realization of balanced mechanical properties were determined using SEM, EBSD, and TEM analyses. The developed steel, 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V), consisted of ferrite as the matrix phase and second phase of granular bainite with fine carbides (20-50 nm) in both phases. The significant factor of the microstructural characteristics that affect stretch-flangeability was found to be the microstructural homogeneity. The microstructural homogeneity, manifest in such characteristics as low localization of plastic strain and internally stored energy, was identified by grain average misorientation method, analyzed by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and hardness deviation between the phases. In summar, a hot-rolled steel having a composition 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V) demonstrated a tensile strength of 998 MPa, a total elongation of 19%, and a hole expansion ratio of 65%. The most important factors to satisfy the mechanical property were the presence of fine carbides and the microstructural homogeneity, which provided low hardness deviation between the phases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.931-932
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• 2006

The microstructures of Ni-containing P/M steels produced by admixed powders or diffusion alloyed powders are usually heterogeneous. To improve the microstructure homogeneity, the effects of Mo and Cr additions in the prealloyed powder form were examined. The results showed that the microstructural homogeneity was improved and superior mechanical properties were achieved with increases in the alloy content, particularly for the Cr. Such a beneficial effect was attained due to the reduction of the repelling effect between Ni and C, as was demonstrated through thermodynamic analysis using the Thermo-Calc software.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.344-350
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• 2022

Extruded Mg-Bi binary alloys are known to have an undesirable bimodal grain structure containing a large amount of coarse unrecrystallized grains. Accordingly, to improve the microstructural homogeneity of extruded Mg-Bi alloys, it is necessary to promote the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior during hot extrusion. An effective way to promote DRX is an increase in nucleation sites for DRX through a pre-deformation process before extrusion, such as cold pre-forging and hot pre-compression. However, the application of these pre-deformation processes increases the cost of final extruded Mg products because of an increase in energy consumption and decrease in productivity. Therefore, a low-cost new continuous process with high productivity is required to improve the microstructural homogeneity and mechanical properties of extruded Mg alloys without a drastic increase in the entire process cost. This study proposes a new extrusion method using an extrusion billet with a truncated cone shape (i.e., tapered billet) instead of a conventional extrusion billet with a cylindrical shape. When the hot extrusion of a Mg-5Bi alloy is conducted using the tapered billet, the DRX behavior during extrusion is considerably promoted. The DRX fraction and average grain size of the extruded alloy significantly increase and decrease from 65% to 91% and from 225 ㎛ to 49 ㎛, respectively. Consequently, the extruded Mg-5Bi alloy fabricated using the tapered billet has a finer homogeneous grain structure and higher tensile elongation than the extruded counterpart fabricated using the cylindrical billet.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.648-653
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• 2012

Hybridization of dense ceramic membranes for hydrogen separation with an electronically conductive metallic phase is normally utilized to enhance the hydrogen permeation flux and thereby to increase the production efficiency of hydrogen. In this study, we developed a nickel and proton conducting oxide ($BaCe_{0.9}Y_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$: BCY) based cermet (ceramic-metal composites) membrane. Focused on the general criteria in that the hydrogen permeation properties of a cermet membrane depend on its microstructural features, such as the grain size and the homogeneity of the mix, we tried to optimize the microstructure of Ni-BCY cermets by controlling the fabrication condition. The Ni-BCY composite powder was synthesized via a solid-state reaction using $2NiCO_3{\cdot}3Ni(OH)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$, $BaCeO_3$, $CeO_2$ and $Y_2O_3$ as a starting material. To optimize the mixing scale and homogeneity of the composite powder, we employed a high-energy milling process. With this high-energy milled composite powder, we could fabricate a fine-grained dense membrane with an excellent level of mixing homogeneity. This controlled Ni-BCY cermet membrane showed higher hydrogen permeability compared to uncontrolled Ni-BCY cermets created with a conventionally ball-milled composite powder.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 1994

Electrical contact property of the W-20wt%Cu contact materials manufactured by liquid phase sintering of nanocomposite W-Cu powders was investigated and discussed in terms of microstructural development during performance test. Nanocomposite powders were prepared by hydrogen reduction of ball milled W-Cu oxide mixture. They underwent complete densification and microstructural homogenization during liquid phase sintering. As a consequence, the W-Cu contacts produced from nanocomposite powders showed superior contact property of lower arc erosion and stable contact resistance. This might be mostly due to the fact that the arc erosion by evaporation of Cu liquid droplets and surface cracking remarkably became weakened. It is concluded that the improvement of anti-arc erosion of the composite specimen is basically attributed to microstructural homogeneity.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.85-88
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• 2005

[ $W-15wt.\%$ ] Cu nanocomposite powders are fabricated by ball-milling and subsequent hydrogen-reduction. The compacted parts of $W-15wt.\%Cu$ nanocomposite powders were sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$ for 1 h with various heating rates of 5 and $20^{\circ}C/min$. The homogeneity of the sintered microstructures was evaluated through homogeneity index by the standard deviation of Victor's hardness test. The W-W contiguities were calculated by using Voronoi diagrams. The sintered microstructure with the heating rate of $20^{\circ}C/min$ was more homogeneous and had lower W-W contiguity than that of $5^{\circ}C/min$. The microstructural homogeneity was directly related to the W-W contiguity. Thermal conductivity of the sintered parts with the heating rate of $20^{\circ}C/min$ was higher than that with heating rate of $5^{\circ}C/min$. This phenomenon indicates that the thermal conductivity is affected by the W-W contiguity resulting from the homogeneity of the sintered microstructure.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-216
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• 1995

In order to investigate the effect o green microstructure on the sintering behavior and properties of AlN ceramics, samples were prepared by slip casting and dry pressing. The slip cast samples had high green density, fine pore size and narrow pore size distribution. They showed much higher sinterability and more homogeneous sintered microstructure compared to the dry pressed samples. Both increased thermal conductivity and flexural strength for samples prepared by slip casting could be attributed to the improved microstructural homogeneity with isolated second phase(s).

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.948-949
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• 2006

An infiltration technique using W-Cu composite powder has been developed to enhance microstructural uniformity of W-Cu pseudo-alloy. W-Cu composite powder, manufactured by reduction from $WO_3$ and CuO powder mixtures, were blended with W powder and then cold iso-statically pressed into a cylindrical bar under 150 MPa. The pressed samples were pre-sintered at $1300^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour under hydrogen to make a skeleton structure. This skeleton structure was more homogeneous than that formed by using W and Cu powder mixtures. The skeleton structures were infiltrated with Cu under hydrogen atmosphere. The infiltrated W-Cu pseudo-alloy showed homogeneous microstructure without Cu rich region

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.170-177
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• 2015

Segregation during solidification and homogenization during thermal exposure in GTD 111 were investigated. The microstructures of as-cast, standard heat-treated, and thermally exposed specimens were observed by SEM. A compositional analysis of each specimen was conducted by EDS. The dendrite core was enriched in W and Co, though lower levels of Ti and Ta were observed. An unexpected phase, in this case like the ${\eta}$ phase, was observed due to segregation near the ${\gamma}-{\gamma}^{\prime}$ eutectic in the standard heat-treated specimen. Segregation also induced microstructural evolution near the ${\gamma}-{\gamma}^{\prime}$ eutectic during the standard heat treatment. A quantitative analysis and microstructural observations showed that the thermal exposure at a high temperature enhanced the chemical homogeneity of the alloy.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.334-339
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• 2019

To meet the current demand in the fields of permanent magnets for achieving a high energy density, it is imperative to prepare nano-to-microscale rare-earth-based magnets with well-defined microstructures, controlled homogeneity, and magnetic characteristics via a bottom-up approach. Here, on the basis of a microstructural study and qualitative magnetic measurements, optimized reduction conditions for the preparation of nanostructured Sm-Co magnets are proposed, and the elucidation of the reduction-diffusion behavior in the binary phase system is clearly manifested. In addition, we have investigated the microstructural, crystallographic, and magnetic properties of the Sm-Co magnets prepared under different reduction conditions, that is, $H_2$ gas, calcium, and calcium hydride. This work provides a potential approach to prepare high-quality Sm-Co-based nanofibers, and moreover, it can be extended to the experimental design of other magnetic alloys.