• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2011

Manufacturing of the bipolar plate of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) by direct laser melting technology (DLM) was attempted. The DLM technology is highly influenced by process parameters such as laser power, scan rate and layering height. Therefore, an analysis of the DLM technology was performed under various conditions. The bipolar plates were fabricated using the DLM process with 316L stainless steel (STS 316L) plates and powder. Powder melting trials at various energy density were performed in order to select a feasible melting range for a given laser power. The melting line height increases and eventually saturates when the energy density increases, but decreases when the laser power increases at a given energy density. For the estimation of the potential performance of the bipolar plate, the surface roughness and contact resistance of the DLM layer were also analyzed. The changes of line height and thickness are useful information to report when manufacturing bipolar plate of fuel cell through the DLM process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.229-234
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• 2016

In this study, the degree of particle melting in $Y_2O_3$ plasma spraying and its effects on coating characteristics have been investigated in terms of microstructural features, microhardness and scratch resistance. Plasma sprayed $Y_2O_3$ coatings were formed using two different powder feeding systems: a system in which the powder is fed inside the plasma gun and a system in which the powder is fed externally. The internal powder spraying method generated a well-defined lamellae structure that was characterized by a thin porous layer at the splat boundary and microcracks within individual splats. Such micro-defects were generated by the large thermal contraction of splats from fully-molten droplets. The external powder spraying method formed a relatively dense coating with a particulate deposition mode, and the deposition of a higher fraction of partially-melted droplets led to a much reduced number of inter-splat pores and intra-splat microcracks. The microhardness and scratch resistance of the $Y_2O_3$ coatings were improved by external powder spraying; this result was mainly attributed to the reduced number of micro-defects.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.202-209
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• 2017

A cold-work tool steel powder is used to fabricate 3-dimensional objects by selective laser melting using a high-pressure gas atomization process. The spherical powder particles form continuous carbide networks among the austenite matrix and its decomposition products. The carbides comprise Nb-rich MC and Mo-rich $M_2C$. In the SLM process, the process parameters such as the laser power (90 W), layer thickness ($25{\mu}m$), and hatch spacing ($80{\mu}m$) are kept fixed, while the scan speed is changed from 50 mm/s to 4000 mm/s. At a low scan speed of 50 mm/s, spherical cavities develop due to over melting, while they are substantially reduced on increasing the speed to 2000 mm/s. The carbide network spacing decreases with increasing speed. At an excessively high speed of 4000 mm/s, long and irregularly shaped cavities are developed due to incomplete melting. The influence of the scan pattern is examined, for which $1{\times}1 mm^2$ blocks constituting a processing layer are irradiated in a random sequence. This island-type pattern exhibits the same effect as that of a low scan speed. Post processing of an object using hot isostatic pressing leads to a great reduction in the porosity but causes coarsening of the microstructure.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2012

Direct laser melting (DLM) is a powder-based additive manufacturing process to produce parts by layer-by-layer laser melting. As the properties of the manufactured parts depend strongly on the deposited laser-melted bead, deposited layers obtained by the DLM process were characterized in this study. This investigation used a 200 W fiber laser to produce single-line beads under a variety of different energy distributions. In order to obtain a feasible range for the two main process parameters (i.e. laser power and scan rate), bead shapes of single track deposition were intensively investigated. The effects of the processing parameters, such as powder layer thickness and scan spacing, on geometries of the deposited layers have also been analyzed. As a result, minimum energy criteria that can achieve a complete melting have been suggested at the given powder layer thickness. The surface roughnesses of the deposited beads were strongly dependent on the overlap ratio of adjacent beads and on the energy distributions of laser power. Through microstructural analysis and hardness measurement, the morphological and mechanical properties of the deposited layers at various overlapped beads have also been characterized.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.517-522
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• 2010

Selective laser melting (SLM) is emerged as a new manufacturing technique to directly fabricate precise parts using metallic materials. The final characteristics of a component fabricated through the SLM process are strongly dependent upon various parameters such as laser power, scan rate and pulse duration, etc. This paper, therefore, focuses on the dimensional characteristics of melted $20{\mu}m$ Fe-Cr-Ni powder by fiber laser for the selective laser melting process. With energy density decrease, the height and depth were decreased. Although the conditions are of the same energy density, the shape is different by laser power and scan rate. The shapes at various laser parameters were divided into 3 groups based on depth over height. The smooth regular shape is obtained under the conditions of $50{\mu}m$ of powder height and $15-20{\mu}s$ of pulse duration. And the laser power influenced the variation of shape more significantly than the scan rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.14-16
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• 2002

Melting and re-solidification nature of $SmBa_2Cu_3O_{7-y}$ (Sm123) grains in Ba-Cu-O (Ba:Cu=3:5) liquid containing 0.7 at.% yttrium were investigated at the temperature lower than its melt point. When Sm123 grains/liquid powder compacts were heated to a temperature between two melting points of Ba-Cu-O liquid ($1000^{\circ}C$) and a Sm123 phase ($1060^{\circ}C$) and held at this temperature for appropriate time, Sm123 grains melted partly in the liquid that was formed by melting of the liquid-forming powder. During subsequent slow cooling, (Sm,Y)$Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-y}$ solidified at the outer parts of the unmelted Sm12 grains, which is distinguished from the core regions by lower $Sm_2BaCuO_5$ (211) density.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.395-396
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• 2006

To manufacture a flange for a compressor with a relief groove by using powder metallurgy in order to prevent deformation to the compressor in operation, powder material for the flange is charged into a mold; an ablative member having a melting point lower than that of the powder material is positioned at a place where a relief groove is to be formed; the flange is formed by compressing the powder material and the ablative member; and the formed flange is sintered at a temperature between the melting point of the powder material and the ablative member so as to melt and remove the ablative member. It made according to the new method has more excellent strength and airtight property than the conventional one. It is analyzed that the ablative member is melted and penetrated into the flange structure during the sintering process, which results in improvement of the airtight property and increase of the strength.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.20-25
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• 2001

Most of mold manufacturing procedures have been automated by the introduction of NC machine tool and CAD/CAM system. But the three-dimensional surface curvature of the mold must be done by hand work of well-skilled workers. Magnetic abrasive polishing powders were investigated for surface polishing for 3D curvature. This study aims to investigate homogeneously distributed hard phase in Fe matrix and strong bonding between Fe-matrix and hard phase. The NbC powder, $B_4C$ powder and $Al_2O_3$ powder were mixed in Fe-matrix respectively. Mixed Fe-hard phase powders were compacted by press and then these were melted by plasma melting. According to SEM, XRD and OM observation, Fe-NbC magnetic abrsive powder had the most homogeneous distribution and strong bonding. As a result of magnetic polishing, the surface roughness before magnetic polishing, 1 ${\mu}m$ $R_{max}$, was reduced to 0.2 ${\mu}m$ $R_{max}$ over the entire inner surface of the tube.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.17-17
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• 2000

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 1990

Single crystals of YBa2Cu3Ox superconductor were grown by means of the flux method. The effectof starting material, cooling rate, melting time, and melting temperjature were evaluated as influencing paraemters. The larger single crystals of YBa2Cu3Ox were obtained with Y2BaCuOy powder as a starting material than with YBa2Cu3Ox powder. The optimum range of synthetic condition for single crystal growth was as follows ; 2-5$^{\circ}C$/hour of cooling rate, 2-5 hour of melting time and melting temperature at 106$0^{\circ}C$. The obtained size of single crystal was 2mm in average and the largest one was 5mm in maximum.