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

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.126-134
• /
• 2018

In this research, we produced polycrystalline n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ powder using water atomization. To obtain full benefit through water atomized powder, we have implemented spark plasma sintering and hot extrusion for powder compaction. The microstructure and thermoelectric properties were investigated and compared. The average grain size of SPS and extruded bulks were 3.08 and $3.86{\mu}m$ respectively. The extruded material microstructure contains layered grains with less grain boundaries and its counter-part SPS displays dense packed grains with high grain boundaries. Among both bulks, extrusion sample exhibited high power factor (PF) of $2.96{\times}10^{-3}Wm^{-1}K^{-2}$ which is 38% higher than SPS ($2.14{\times}10^{-3}$) bulk sample. Due to variations in grain size and grain boundaries, the SPS bulk shows low thermal conductivity than extruded bulk. However, the extruded bulk sample exhibited a peak ZT of 0.69 at 400 K, which is 19% higher than SPS bulk sample, due to its higher power factor.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.161-167
• /
• 2000

Mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and ball-milled (Ni+Al) powder mixture were sintered by spark-plasma sintering(SPS) process. Mechanical alloying was performed in a horizontal attritor for 20 h with rotation speed of 600 rpm. (Ni+Al) powder mixtures were prepared by ball milling for 1 and 10 h with 120 rpm. Both powders were sintered at $1150^{\circ}C$ for 5 min under $10^{-3}$ torr vacuum with 50 MPa die pressure in a SPS facility. Sintered densities of 97% and 99% were obtained from mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and (Ni+Al) powder mixture, respectively. The sintered compact of (Ni+Al) powder mixture showed large grain size by a very rapid grain growth, while the grain size of mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder compact after sintering was extremely fine(80 nm). The difference in densification behavior of both powders were discussed.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.59-62
• /
• 2019

Y2O3-MgO nanocomposites are promising materials for hypersonic infrared windows and domes due to their excellent midIR transmittance and mechanical properties. In this work, influence of SPS heating rate on the microstructure, IR transmittance, and mechanical properties of Y2O3-MgO nanocomposites was investigated. It was found that the average grain size decreases with a decreasing heating rate, which can be attributed to high defect concentration by rapid heating and deformation during densification. Also, the residual porosity decreases with a decreasing heating rate, which is ascribed to the enhancement of grain boundary diffusion by a large grain-boundary area (a small grain size). Consequently, high transmittance and hardness were attained by the low heating rate. On the other hand, the mechanical strength showed little difference with the heating rate change, which is somewhat different from the general knowledge on ceramics and will be discussed in this letter.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.101-105
• /
• 2023

A mixture of elemental Co₅₀Si₅₀ powders was subjected to mechanical alloying (MA) at room temperature to prepare a CoSi thermoelectric compound. Consolidation of the Co₅₀Si₅₀ mechanically alloyed powders was performed in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) machine using graphite dies up to 800 ℃ and 1,000 ℃ under 50 MPa. We have revealed that a nanocrystalline CoSi thermoelectric compound can be produced from a mixture of elemental Co₅₀Si₅₀ powders by mechanical alloying after 20 hours. The average grain size estimated from a Hall plot of the CoSi intermetallic compound prepared after 40 hours of MA was 65 nm. The degree of shrinkage of the consolidated samples during SPS became significant at about 450 ℃. All of the compact bodies had a high relative density of more than 94 % with a metallic glare on the surface. X-ray diffraction data showed that the SPS compact produced by sintering mechanically alloyed powders for 40-hours up to 800 ℃ consisted of only nanocrystalline CoSi with a grain size of 110 nm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
• /
• 2006.09b
• /
• pp.725-726
• /
• 2006

Ultra-fine grained and dispersion-strengthened titanium materials (Ti-Si, Ti-C, Ti-Si-C) have been produced by high energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering (SPS). Silicon or/and carbon were milled together with the titanium powder to form nanometer-sized and homogeneously distributed titanium silicides or/and carbides as dispersoids, that should prevent grain coarsening during the SPS compaction and contribute to strengthening of the material. The microstructures and the mechanical properties showed that strength, hardness and wear resistance of the sintered materials have been significantly improved by the mechanisms of grain refinement and dispersion strengthening. The use of an organic fluid as carrier of the dispersoid forming elements caused a significant increase in ductility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
• /
• 2006.09a
• /
• pp.529-530
• /
• 2006

This paper concerned with SPS (spark plasma sintering), hot pressing of sinter nanometer WC-Co powder and discussed the density, hardness, microstructures and grain sizes of the alloys sintered. The results showed that the two sintered techniques could produce high density alloys and play well on the grain growth, but SPS could lower the sintering temperature and shorten sintering time. Besides, the hardness of the sintered cemented alloys that was dependent on the grain size and densification could also be improved.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.172-177
• /
• 2002

The CuZnAl alloys have some advantages against other shape memory alloys, such as the widely variable transformation temperature, the low cost and easy fabrication. The alloys have been produced mostly by metallurgical methods. Thereby a tendency to large grain sizes is observed, which causes brittle properties of the materials. In order to avoid these deficiencies a special powder metallurgical process, SPS(spark plasma sintering), is applied in the present investigation. The starting materials were the pure (99.9 %) Cu, Zn and Al element powders with different particle size. The relatively fine grained and homogeneous Cu-24.78Zn-9.11Al (at.%) and Cu-13.22Zn-17.24Al (at.%) shape memory alloys were obtained using the powders with size of 75-150 $\mu$m. The average grain size is about 70 $\mu$m and the phases at room temperature are the austenitic and martensitic phase respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.352-359
• /
• 2003

In order to control the grain size, the spark plasma sintering technique is applied for the manufacturing of Cu-26.7Al-4.05AI(wt.%) shape memory alloy with pure Cu, Zn, and Al element powders. The sintering processes were carried out under different atmospheres. The sintered bodies were denser under Ar or Ar＋4%$H_2$gas atmosphere than under vacuum. With use of small-sized powders, a very small average grain size of 2∼3 $\mu\textrm{m}$ was obtained, but the single phase was not formed. With the large-sized powders the single austenitic phase was observed with the average grain size of $70∼72\mu\textrm{m}$. When the different size of raw powders was mixed, it is confirmed that the average grain size of the manufactured alloys was 15 $\mu\textrm{m}$ with single austenitic phase, but the distribution of grain size was not uniform.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.10
• /
• pp.3725-3731
• /
• 2023

Thorium dioxide (ThO₂)-silicon carbide (SiC) composite fuel pellets were fabricated via the spark plasma-sintering (SPS) method to investigate the role of the addition of SiC in enhancing the thermal conductivity of ThO₂ fuel. SiC particles with an average size of 1㎛ in 10 and 15 vol% were used to manufacture the composite pellets. The changes in the composites' densification, microstructure and thermal conductivity were explored by comparing them with pure ThO₂ pellets. The structural and microstructural characterization of the composite pellets has revealed that SPS could manufacture high-quality composite pellets without having any reaction products or intermetallic. The density measurement by the Archimedes principles and the grain size from the electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis has indicated that the composites have higher densities and smaller grain sizes than the pellets without SiC addition. Finally, thermal conductivity as a function of temperature has revealed that sintered ThO₂-SiC composites showed an increase of up to 56% in thermal conductivity compared to pristine ThO₂ pellets.