Materials Science Forum Vols. 539-543

Abstract: Investigations carried out referred to obtaining material based on the high-speed steel and non-alloy steel. The conventional powder metallurgy method was used for manufacturing these materials, consisting in compacting the powder in the closed die and sintering it next, the isostatic pressing method, and the modern pressureless forming powder metallurgy. Forming methods were developed during the investigations for high-speed and non-alloy steel powders, making it possible to obtain materials with three layers in their structure. Investigations included determining the sintering conditions, and especially the temperature and treatment cycle, as well as examining the selected mechanical properties. It was found out, basing on the comparison of structures and properties of test pieces made with the pressureless forming method, as well as with the isostatic pressing and pressing in the closed die, with further sintering, that in structures of all examined test pieces in the sintered state fine carbides occurred distributed homogeneously in the high-speed steel layer. It was noticed, that increase of the sintering temperature, regardless of the manufacturing method, results in the uncontrolled growth and coagulation of the primary carbides and melting up to forming of eutectics in layers consisting of the high-speed steel. It was found out basing on the microhardness tests that hardness of test pieces both those pressureless formed, compacted in the closed die, and isostatically cold pressed and sintered grows along with the sintering temperature. It was also noted that the sintering temperature range is bigger in case of the pressureless formed materials.

Abstract: It is generally known that Ag-CdO electric contact material excels others in characteristics. Thus, the contact material has been widely used, regardless of current strength. However, in a view point of environment, the advanced electric contact material without environmental load element such as cadmium has to be developed. Extensive studies have been carried out on Ag-SnO2 electric contact material as a substitute of Ag-CdO contact materials. In the manufacturing process of Ag-SnO2 electric contact material, it can be mentioned that typical internal oxidation process is not suitable to produce Ag-SnO2 electric contact material because the Sn located around surface may interrupt oxidation of Sn in the middle of material. Therefore, in the present study, powder metallurgy including compaction and sintering is introduced to solve the incomplete oxidation problems in manufacturing process of Ag-SnO2 electrical contact material. The formation of the blends was manufactured by wet blending of powders of Ag and SnO2. The quantity of SnO2 powder was 15wt.%, with intent to optimize the powdering process for the minute powder of which diameter is less than 5μ m. Particle size and grain distribution of Ag powder and SnO2 powder by powder metallurgy were measured by image analyzer. In order to estimate the properties of specimen tested with a variation of mixed time, the micro-hardness measurement was carried out. The Ag-SnO2-based contact material, which was produced through this study, was actually set in an electric switchgear of which working voltage is 462V and current is between 25 and 40A, for the purpose of testing its performance. As the result, it excelled the existing Ag-CdO-based contact materials in terminal-temperature ascent and main contact resistance.

Abstract: In the current study, the amorphization behavior of mechanically alloyed Ni57Zr20Ti22Pb1 powder was examined in details. The conventional X-ray diffraction results confirm that the fully amorphous powders formed after 5 hours of milling. The thermal stability of the Ni57Zr20Ti22Pb1 amorphous powders was investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). As the results demonstrated, the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the crystallization temperature (Tx) are 760 K and 850 K, respectively. The supercooled liquid region

 is 90 K. The appearance of wide supercooled liquid region may be mainly due to the Pb additions which cause the increasing differences in atomic size of mechanically alloyed Ni57Zr20Ti22Pb1 powders.

Abstract: Highly porous materials with a cellular structure are known to have many interesting combinations of physical and mechanical properties, such as very low specific weight combined with high thermal conductivity. However, when the pore size of the foam metal grows, the strength maintenance is scarce because the array of the pore is not uniform. In the present work, micro porous aluminum with porosities between 5% and 50% and pore sizes of 20～50 μm was produced by applying the powder metallurgical technique, i.e. by sintering the aluminum metal powders and PMMA powder mixture at 913 K. The effect of sintering temperature on the compressive properties of porous aluminum was investigated. The effects of particle size and fraction of space holding particle and metal powder on the porosity pore size and mechanical properties of porous sintered specimens were mainly investigated. The pore size of porous aluminum can be controlled by changing the PMMA powder diameter. The results show the fabrication of the micro porous aluminum with middle porosity and high strength is possible.

Abstract: The synthesis of spherical silver powders by chemical reduction method was investigated. Conductive metal pastes to have good properties in adhesion, stability, and conductivity, it is very important to control the purity, size, and shape of metal particles. In the present study, proper methods to control the properties of micron sized metal powders for conductive pastes are investigated. Chemical reduction method in aqueous solution was adapted to produce silver powder. The effects of reaction time, concentration of reductant and additives, and stirring speed were investigated, in experimental. Fine spherical silver powder of 0.5 to 3 ㎛ were synthesized from silver nitrate solution with hydroquinone as a reducing additive by liquid phase method, and some variables and reaction mechanism in conjunction with the particle morphology and size were studied.

Abstract: Formation of nanocrystalline structure by severe plastic deformation has studied extensively. Although ultra fine grained structure (grain size larger than 100 nm) had been obtained in many processes such as heavy cold rolling, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) or accumulative roll bonding (ARB), the formation of nano grained structure (< 100 nm) is limited to processes such as ball milling, shot peening or drilling. In the present study, high pressure torsion (HPT) deformation and drilling were carried out to understand the conditions necessary to obtain nano grained structure in steels. The results of HPT experiments in pure Fe showed that HPT has superior ability of strengthening and grain refinement probably due to a strain gradient but the saturation of grain refinement occurs before reaching nano grained structure. Drilling experiments in high carbon martensitic steel revelaed that nano grained ferrite forms at the drilled hole surface only when the transformation from ferrite to austenite takes place during drilling. Considering various other processes by which nano grained ferrite was produced, it is proposed that heavy strains with large strain gradients together with dynamic transformation are necessary to reach nano grained ferrite structure.

Abstract: A nanostructured surface layer on a pure iron sample was prepared by surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT). The thermal stability of SMAT sample was investigated at different temperatures with or without a high magnetic field (H =12T). It was found that a high magnetically annealing enhanced grain growth at the early stage of annealing, and produced a uniform nanocrystalline grain structure. After homogeneous grains developed, further grain growth became restrained.

Abstract: An overview of the microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and microalloying is presented and some further research fields are suggested for Cu-Ag microcomposites. The nanostructures of filamentary morphology in these microcomposites can be obtained by heavy deformation. Both the mechanical and electrical properties depend upon the material composition, strain degree, intermediate heat treatments and final annealing processes. These factors strongly affect the phase proportion, microstructure morphology, precipitate volume, hardening level and filamentary distribution. Optimum technology of materials preparation makes the microcomposites possess high strength and conductivity. Some third constituents added to the alloys improve the strength but generally decrease the conductivity. It is considered that relative mechanisms and processes should be further investigated for the development and application of the microcomposites.