• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.170-174
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• 2015

Composite ceramics of alumina-TZP(3Y) have good mechanical and electrical properties. So, They have been used as high strength refractory materials and thick film substrates, etc. In this study, Composite ceramics of alumina-TZP(3Y) were fabricated by uniaxial pressing and sintering at 1,400, 1,500, and $1,600^{\circ}C$, and their microstructures and mechanical properties were investigated. As the TZP(3Y) content in composite ceramics increases from 20 wt.% to 80 wt.%, the fracture toughness increases monotonically, which seems to be related to the higher relative density and/or toughening mechanism by means of stabilized tetragonal zirconia phase at room temperature. In contrast to the fracture toughness, Vickers hardness of the composite ceramics shows maximum value (1,938 Hv) at a 40 wt.% of TZP(3Y). The result of Vickers hardness is likely to be due to more dense sintered microstructure of composite ceramics than pure alumina and reinforcement of composite ceramics with TZP(3Y), considering that Vickers hardness of pure $Al_2O_3$ is greater than that of TZP(3Y). It is also shown that the $ZrO_2$ particles are $l^{\circ}Cated$ between $Al_2O_3$ grains and suppress grain growth each other.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2018

The properties of 18 K red gold solder alloys were investigated by changing the content of In up to 10.0 wt% in order to replace the hazardous Cd element. Cupellation and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to check the composition of each alloy, and FE-SEM and UV-VIS-NIR-Colormeter were employed for microstructure and color characterization. The melting temperature, hardness, and wetting angle of the samples were determined by TGA-DTA, the Vickers hardness tester, and the Wetting angle tester. The cupellation result confirmed that all the samples had 18K above 75.0wt%-Au. EDS results showed that Cu and In elements were alloyed with the intended composition without segregation. The microstructure results showed that the amount of In increased, and the grain size became smaller. The color analysis revealed that the proposed solders up to 10.0 wt% In showed a color similar to the reference 18 K substrate like the 10.0 wt% Cd solder with a color difference of less than 7.50. TGA-DTA results confirmed that when more than 5.0 wt% of In was added, the melting temperature decreased enough for the soldering process. The Vickers hardness result revealed that more than 5.0 wt% In solder alloys had greater hardness than 10.0 wt% Cd solder, which suggested that it was more favorable in making a wire type solder. Moreover, all the In solders showed a lower wetting angle than the 10.0 wt% Cd solder. Our results suggested that the In alloyed 18 K red gold solders might replace the conventional 10.0 wt% Cd solder with appropriate properties for red gold jewelry soldering.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.257-265
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• 2019

Multi-axial forging (MAF), a severe plastic deformation technique, is known to be difficult to obtain materials with homogeneous microstructures. Recently, multi-axial diagonal forging (MADF) process has been developed to solve this problem. In this study, in order to compare the microstructural and mechanical homogeneities of the MAFed and MADFed samples, oxygen-free copper (OFC) cubes measuring 25 mm in length were deformed through MAF and MADF processes and the average grain size and hardness were measured at the edge, face, and center regions of the samples. In the MAFed samples, ultrafine grains were formed at the center region, but a considerable amount of coarse grains remain at the face region. Therefore, the MAFed samples showed a high inhomogeneity in regards to grain size and hardness. On the contrary, in the case of the MADFed sample, the grain sizes at the edge, face, and center regions were similar and the hardness in all the regions are almost similar. This indicates that the MADFed sample has a homogeneous microstructure and uniform mechanical properties, which can be attributed to the homogeneous distribution of the effective strain throughout the material. The results of this study suggests that the MADF is a suitable process in the fabrication of high-strength copper materials with a homogeneous and ultrafine grain structure.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.634-645
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• 2008

In this study, surface composites were fabricated with Fe-based amorphous alloy powders and VC powders by high-energy electron beam irradiation, and the correlation of their microstructure with hardness and fracture toughness was investigated. Mixture of Fe-based metamorphic powders and VC powders were deposited on a plain carbon steel substrate, and then electron beam was irradiated on these powders without flux to fabricate surface composites. The composite layers of 1.3~1.8 mm in thickness were homogeneously formed without defects and contained a large amount (up to 47 vol.%) of hard $Cr_2B$ and $V_8C_7$ crystalline particles precipitated in the solidification cell region and austenite matrix, respectively. The hardness of the surface composites was directly influenced by hard $Cr_2B$ and $V_8C_7$ particles, and thus was about 2 to 4 times greater than that of the steel substrate. Observation of the microfracture process and measurement of fracture toughness of the surface composites indicated that the fracture toughness increased with increasing additional volume fraction of $V_8C_7$ particles because $V_8C_7$ particles effectively played a role in blocking the crack propagation along the solidification cell region heavily populated with $Cr_2B$ particles. Particularly in the surface composite fabricated with Fe-based metamorphic powders and 30 % of VC powders, the hardness and fracture toughness were twice higher than those of the surface composite fabricated without mixing of VC powders.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.628-634
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• 2011

SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel, in which Ni and Cr contents are higher than in commercial SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steels, may be a candidate reactor pressure vessel (RPV) material with higher strength and toughness from its tempered martensitic microstructure. The inner surface of the RPV is weld-cladded with stainless steels to prevent corrosion. The goal of this study is to evaluate the microstructural properties of the clad interface between Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel and stainless weldment, and the effects of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the properties. The properties of the clad interface were compared with those of commercial Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Multi-layer welding of model alloys with ER308L and ER309L stainless steel by the SAW method was performed, and then PWHT was conducted at $610^{\circ}C$ for 30 h. The microstructural changes of the clad interface were analyzed using OM, SEM and TEM, and micro-Vickers hardness tests were performed. Before PWHT, the heat affected zone (HAZ) showed higher hardness than base and weld metals due to formation of martensite after welding in both steels. In addition, the hardness of the HAZ in Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel was higher than that in Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel due to a comparatively high martensite fraction. The hardness of the HAZ decreased after PWHT in both steels, but the dark region was formed near the fusion line in which the hardness was locally high. In the case of Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel, formation of fine Cr-carbides in the weld region near the fusion line by diffusion of C from the base metal resulted in locally high hardness in the dark region. However, the precipitates of the region in the Ni-Cr-Mo low alloy steel were similar to that in the base metal, and the hardness in the region was not greatly different from that in the base metal.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.38-45
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• 2004

The present study is to investigate the effect of heat input on the microstructure, tensile properties and toughness of single-pass submerged arc bead-in-groove welds produced on SA508 class 3 steels. The heat input was varied in the range of 1.6, 3.2 and 5.0 kJ/mm. The toughness of weld metals was evaluated by using subsize Charpy V-notch specimens in the temperature range of -19$0^{\circ}C$ to 2$0^{\circ}C$. The weld microstructure and fractography were observed by optical and scanning electron microscopies, respectively. With increasing heat inputs, tensile strength and hardness of weld metals were decreased while elongation was increased. The poor notch toughness at 1.6 kJ/mm was attributed to the formation of ferrite with aligned second phase and banitic microstructure with high yield strength while that at 5.0 kJ/mm was due to the presence of grain boundary and polygonal ferrites. The microstructure of the intermediate energy input welds consisted of a high proportion of acicular ferrite with limited polygonal ferrites, which provide improved notch toughness.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.531-536
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• 2013

This paper investigates the effect of prolonged high temperature exposure on concentric laminated $Al_2O_3-ZrO_2$ composites. An ultrafine scale microstructure with a cellular 7 layer concentric lamination with unidirectional alignment was fabricated by a multi-pass extrusion method. Each laminate in the microstructure was $2-3{\mu}m$ thick. An alternate lamina was composed of 75%$Al_2O_3$-(25%m-$ZrO_2$) and t-$ZrO_2$ ceramics. The composite was sintered at $1500^{\circ}C$ and subjected to $1450^{\circ}C$ temperature for 24 hours to 72 hours. We investigated the effect of long time high temperature exposure on the generation of residual stress and grain growth and their effect on the overall stability of the composites. The residual stress development and its subsequent effect on the microstructure with the edge cracking behavior mechanism were investigated. The residual stress in the concentric laminated microstructure causes extensive micro cracks in the t-$ZrO_2$ layer, despite the very thin laminate thickness. The material properties like Vickers hardness and fracture toughness were measured and evaluated along with the microstructure of the composites with prolonged high temperature exposure.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.222-226
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• 2018

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) is a promising method for drastically enhancing the mechanical properties of the materials by grain refinement of metallic materials. However, inhomogeneous deformation during the SPD process results in the inhomogeneous microstructure of the SPD-processed material. We manufactured cylindrical copper specimens of 42 mm in diameter with ultrafine grains (UFG) using an equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) to figure out the relationship between homogeneous microstructure and the number of the processing passes. Two specimens, which are ECAP-processed 4 times (4pass) and 6 times (6pass) each with Route Bc, are prepared for comparison of mechanical properties and microstructure. The results show that the mechanical properties of the two specimens (4pass and 6pass) are similar. Moreover, both the specimens show highly enhanced mechanical properties. The 4pass specimen, however, shows inhomogeneity in hardness distribution, while the 6pass specimen shows a homogeneous distribution. Microstructure analysis reveals that the 4pass specimen has an inhomogeneous microstructure with incompletely refined grain structure. This inhomogeneity of the 4pass specimen could be explained by the circumferential rotation during ECAP process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.110-114
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• 2006

In this work, comparative studies on microstructure and mechanical properties between $Mo_2N$ and Mo-Si-N coatings were conducted. Ternary Mo-Si-N coatings were deposited on AISI D2 steel substrates by a hybrid method, where AIP technique was combined with a magnetron sputtering technique. Instrumental analyses of XRD, HRTEM, and XPS revealed that the Mo-Si-N coatings must be a composite consisting of fine $Mo_2N$ crystallites and amorphous $Si_3N_4$. The hardness value of Mo-Si-N coatings significantly increased from 22 GPa of $Mo_2N$ coatings to about 37 GPa with Si content of 10 at.% due to the refinement of $Mo_2N$ crystallites and the composite microstructure characteristics. The average friction coefficient of the Mo-Si-N coatings gradually decreased from 0.65 to 0.4 with increasing Si content up to 15 at.%. The effects of Si content on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mo-N coatings were systematically investigated.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2021

The present study deals with the microstructure and mechanical properties of 700 MPa-grade high-strength seismic resistant reinforced steel bars fabricated by various TempCore process conditions. For the steel bars, in the surface region tempered martensite was formed by water cooling and subsequent self-tempering during TempCore process, while in the center region there was ferrite-pearlite or bainite microstructure. The steel bar fabricated by the highest water flow and the lowest equalizing temperature had the highest hardness in all regions due to the relatively fine microstructure of tempered martensite and bainite. In addition, the steel bar having finer microstructures as well as the high fraction of tempered martensite in the surface region showed the highest yield and tensile strengths. The presence of vanadium precipitates and the high fraction of ferrite contributed to the improvement of seismic resistance such as high tensile-to-yield strength ratio and high uniform elongation.