• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2004

TiNi bodies were produced from (Ti＋Ni) powder mixture by spark-plasma sintering procerg. The sintering behavior was investigated through the measurement of change in density, densification rate, phase analysis and microstructure. Irrespective of heating rate, sintered bodies with above 97％ relative density could be obtained. TiNi with B2 structure was confirmed as the major phase and $Ti_2Ni,\;TiNi_3$, unreacted Ti, Ni as the second phase. Increase in heating rate suppressed a formation of intermediate phase during sintering process. Increase in holding time at sintering temperature led to a compositional homogenization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.894-895
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• 2006

WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC nanocrystalline powders were sintered by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot press sintering (HPS), and the microstructure and properties were compared. Results show that dense WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC can be obtained by SPS in several minutes when the sintering temperature is $>1200^{\circ}C$. Sintered at a temperature of $1300^{\circ}C$ the sample prepared by SPS for 3 minutes has higher density, finer grains and better properties than that prepared by HPS for 60 minutes. SPS can be used to prepare nanocrystalline WC-$10C_o$-0.8VC with improved properties when suitable sintering parametesr are chosen.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2010

The unique features of spark plasma sintering process are the possibilities of a very fast heating rate and a short holding time to obtain fully dense materials. $\beta$-SiC powder with 0, 2, 6, 10 wt% of $\alpha$-SiC particles (seeds) and 4 wt% of Al-B-C (sintering aids) were spark plasma sintered at $1700-1850^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The heating rate, applied pressure and sintering atmosphere were kept at $100^{\circ}C/min$, 40 MPa and a flowing Ar gas (500 CC/min). Microstructural development of SiC as function of seed content and temperature during spark plasma sintering was investigated quantitatively and statistically using image analysis. Quantitative image analyses on the sintered SiC ceramics were conducted on the grain size, aspect ratio and grain size distribution of SiC. The microstructure of SiC sintered up to $1700^{\circ}C$ consisted of equiaxed grains. In contrast, the growth of large elongated SiC grains in small matrix grains was shown in sintered bodies at $1750^{\circ}C$ and the plate-like grains interlocking microstructure had been developed by increasing sintering temperature. The introduction of $\alpha$-SiC seeds into $\beta$-SiC accelerated the grain growth of elongated grains during sintering, resulting in the plate-like grains interlocking microstructure. In the $\alpha$-SiC seeds added in $\beta$-SiC, the rate of grain growth decreased with $\alpha$-SiC seed content, however, bulk density and aspect ratio of grains in sintered body increased.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.94-99
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• 2017

Single walled carbon nanotubes were mixed with various metal powders by mechanical ball milling and sintered by spark plasma sintering processes. Two compositional (0.1 and 1 vol%) of the single walled carbon nanotubes were dispersed onto the pure aluminum, 5052 aluminum alloy, pure titanium, Ti6Al4Vanadium alloy, pure copper, and stainless steel 316L. Each composite powders were spark plasma sintered at $600^{\circ}C$ and well synthesized regardless of the matrices. Vickers hardness of the composite materials was measured and they exhibited higher values regardless of the carbon nanotubes composition than those of the pure materials. Moreover, single walled carbon nanotubes reinforced copper matrix composites showed highest enhancement between the other metal matrices system. We believe that low energy mechanical ball milling and spark plasma sintering processes are useful tool for fabricating of the carbon nanotubes-reinforced various metal matrices composite materials. The single walled carbon nanotubes-reinforced various metal matrices composite materials could be used as an engineering parts in many kind of industrial fields such as aviation, transportation and electro technologies etc. However, detail strengthening mechanism should be carefully investigated.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.405-410
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• 2008

SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) Ni-YSZ anode was fabricated by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process and its microstructure and electrical properties were investigated in this study. The spark plasma sintering process was carried out at $800{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$ for holding time of 5 min under 40 MPa. To fabricate Ni-YSZ anode, the SPS processed specimens were reduced at $800^{\circ}C$ under $H_2$ atmosphere. The reduced specimens showed relative density of $48.4{\sim}64.8%$ according to sintering temperature. And also, the electrical conductivity of reduced specimens after sintering at 900 and $1000^{\circ}C$ showed $480{\sim}600$ (S/cm) values at the measuring range of $600{\sim}900^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.256-259
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• 2014

A magnetic powder, M-type barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19), was consolidated with the spark plasma sintering process. Three different holding temperatures, $850^{\circ}C$, $875^{\circ}C$ and $900^{\circ}C$ were applied to the spark plasma sintering process with the same holding times, heating rates and compaction pressure of 30 MPa. The relative density was measured simultaneously with spark plasma sintering and the convergent relative density after cooling was found to be proportional to the holding temperature. The full relative density was obtained at $900^{\circ}C$ and the total sintering time was only 33.3 min, which was much less than the conventional furnace sintering method. The higher holding temperature also led to the higher saturation magnetic moment (${\sigma}_s$) and the higher coercivity ($H_c$) in the vibrating sample magnetometer measurement. The saturation magnetic moment (${\sigma}_s$) and the coercivity ($H_c$) obtained at $900^{\circ}C$ were 56.3 emu/g and 541.5 Oe for each.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.2 s.273
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• pp.140-144
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• 2005

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Tetragonal Zirconia Polycrystals (TZP) sintered bodies, which made by pressureless and spark plasma sintering techniques, were investigated using XRD, SEM, and TEM techniques. In the spark plasma sintered samples, the TZP grains were equiaxed type including many sub-grain boundaries regardless of sintering conditions. The biaxial strength of TZP having an average of 80 nm grains in diameter was high in value with 1025 MPa, but fracture toughness showed a low value due to the absence of a fracture toughening mechanism such as transformation toughening. In the Pressureless Sintered (PLSed) samples, the grain size of TZP was strongly dependent on the sintering temperature; i.e., it gradually increased as the sintering temperature increased. The value of fracture toughness increased as the grain size increased by the stress-induced phase transformation and Borne crack deflection.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.447-453
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• 2014

Effect of oxygen content in the ultrafine tungsten powder fabricated by electrical explosion of wire method on the behvior of spark plasma sintering was investigated. The initial oxygen content of 6.5 wt% of as-fabricated tungsten powder was reduced to 2.3 and 0.7 wt% for the powders which were reduction-treated at $400^{\circ}C$ for 2 hour and at $500^{\circ}C$ for 1h in hydrogen atmosphere, respectively. The reduction-treated tungsten powders were spark-plasma sintered at $1200-1600^{\circ}C$ for 100-3600 sec. with applied pressure of 50 MPa under vacuum of 0.133 Pa. Maximun sindered density of 97% relative density was obtained under the condition of $1600^{\circ}C$ for 1h from the tungsten powder with 0.7 wt% oxygen. Sintering activation energy of $95.85kJ/mol^{-1}$ was obtained, which is remarkably smaller than the reported ones of $380{\sim}460kJ/mol^{-1}$ for pressureless sintering of micron-scale tungsten powders.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.356-361
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• 2015

Fe-30 wt% TiC composite powders are fabricated by in situ reaction synthesis after planetary ball milling of (Fe, $TiH_2$, Carbon) powder mixture. Two sintering methods of a pressureless sintering and a spark-plasma sintering are tested to densify the Fe-30 wt% TiC composite powder compacts. Pressureless sintering is performed at 1100, 1200 and $1300^{\circ}C$ for 1-3 hours in a tube furnace under flowing argon gas atmosphere. Spark-plasma sintering is carried out under the following condition: sintering temperature of $1050^{\circ}C$, soaking time of 10 min, sintering pressure of 50 MPa, heating rate of $50^{\circ}C/min$, and in a vacuum of 0.1 Pa. The curves of shrinkage and its derivative (shrinkage rate) are obtained from the data stored automatically during sintering process. The densification behaviors are investigated from the observation of fracture surface and cross-section of the sintered compacts. The pressureless-sintered powder compacts are not densified even after sintering at $1300^{\circ}C$ for 3 h, which shows a relative denstiy of 66.9%. Spark-plasma sintering at $1050^{\circ}C$ for 10 min exhibits nearly full densification of 99.6% relative density under the sintering pressure of 50 MPa.

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