In order to reduce the weight of automobile parts, automobile parts using aluminum alloy are being developed. Aluminum alloy for automobile parts is mainly made of Al6xxx (Al-Mg-Si) type alloy, which is excellent in hot forming property, and it can increase mechanical properties by the use of heat treatment. In this study, hot forming was performed using Al6082. Before the hot forming, the forming analysis was performed using the DEFORM-3D finite element analysis program in this case. For the forming analysis, the heat transfer coefficient was derived from the experiment, and the forming analysis was performed by applying it. At the forging analysis, the temperature of Al6082 material was set to 813K and that of the mold was set to room temperature. After the forging analysis, the experiment was performed, and the forging analysis and the experimental results were compared.

The superplastic forming/diffusion bonding process has been developed to fabricate a core frame structure with joint nodes out of tubes, for the development of a titanium high performance bicycle. The hydroforming process has been applied for bulging of a tube in the superplastic condition before, and during the diffusion bonding process. In this experiment, a commercial Ti-3Al-2.5V tube was selected as raw material for the study. The forming experiment has been performed using a servo-hydraulic press with a capacity of 200 ton. Next, nitrogen gas was used to acquire necessary pressure for the bulging and bonding of the tubes to fabricate the joint nodes. The pertinent processing temperature was $870^{\circ}C$ for the superplastic hydroforming/diffusion bonding (SHF/DB) process, using the Ti-3Al-2.5V tube. The bonding quality and the progress of bulging and diffusion bonding have been observed by the investigation of the joining interfaces at the cross section of the joint structure. The control of the nitrogen pressure throughout the SHF/DB process, was an important factor to avoid any significant defects in the joint structure. The whole progress stage of the diffusion bonding could be observed at a joint interface. A core structure with 5 joint nodes to manufacture a titanium bicycle could be obtained in a SHF/DB process.

Direct Laser Melting (DLM) of $Ti-xTiH_2$ (mixing ratio x = 2, 5, 10 wt.%) blended powder is characterized by producing porous titanium parts. When a high energy laser is irradiated on a $Ti-TiH_2$ blended powder, hydrogen gas ($H_2$) is produced by the accompanying decomposition of the $TiH_2$ powder, and acts as a pore-forming and activator. The hydrogen gas trapped in a rapidly solidified molten pool, which generates porosity in the deposited layer. In this study, the effects of a $TiH_2$ mixing ratio and the associated processing parameters on the development of a porous titanium were investigated. It was determined that as the content of $TiH_2$ increases, the resulting porosity density also increases, due to the increase of $H_2$ produced by $TiH_2$. Also, porosity increases as the scan speed increases. As fast solidified melting pools do not provide enough time for $H_2$ to escape, the faster the scan speed, the more the resulting $H_2$ is captured by the process. The results of this study show that the mixing ratio (x) and laser machining parameters can be adjusted to actively generate and control the porosity of the DLM parts.

The effect of hardening methods and process parameters on surface hardening of a Ti-6Al-4V Alloy has been investigated in this study. To characterize the effectiveness of the respective surface hardening methods, samples of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy were self-quenched, laser-nitrided, laser-carburized, laser-carbonitrided at the same laser irradiation conditions. This experimental procedure was followed by comparing the microstructural evolutions and mechanical properties of the respective samples after the laser surface hardenings. The hardening characteristics of the respective laser surface hardenings were well defined in this study, and the hardness was significantly influenced by the reaction compounds and laser energy density.

In this study, various alloying elements (Cr, Sr, Ca, Cd) were added to improve the mechanical properties of ADC12 fabricated by a die casting process. The effect of alloying elements on the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. The phase analysis results of the modified ADC12 alloy with conventional ADC12 alloy, showed the similar characteristics of Al matrix, Si phase, $CuAl_2$ phase and the Fe intermetallic phase. As a result of the microstructure observation, the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) was shown to have decreased after the addition of the alloying elements. The eutectic Si phase, which existed as flake form in the conventional ADC12 alloy, was modified finely as a fiber form in the modified ADC12 alloy. It was observed that the $CuAl_2$ phase as the strengthening phase was relatively finely distributed in the modified ADC12 alloy. The Fe intermetallic appeared as a Chinese script shaped $Al_6$ (Mn,Fe) which is detrimental to mechanical properties in conventional ADC12 alloy. On the other hand, in the modified ADC12 alloy, polyhedral ${\alpha}-Al_{15}Si_2$ $(Fe,Mn,Cr)_3$ was observed. The tensile properties were improved in the modified ADC12 alloy. The yield strength and tensile strength increased by 12.4% and 10.0%, respectively, in the modified ADC12 alloy, and the elongation was also seen to have been increased. As a result of the pin on disk wear test, the wear resistance properties were also improved by up to about 7% in the modified ADC12 alloy. It is noted that the wear deformation microstructures were also observed, and it was found that the fine eutectic Si and strengthening phases greatly improved abrasion resistance.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is used by the semiconductor industry, and is a compound that is required when manufacturing high thermal conductivity. The AlN films with c-axis orientation and thermal conductivity characteristic were deposited by using the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The AlN thin films were characterized by changing the deposition conditions. In particular, we have researched the AlN thin film deposited under optimal conditions for growth atmosphere. The epitaxial AlN films were grown on sapphire ($c-Al_2O_3$) single crystals by PLD with AlN target. The AlN films were deposited at a fixed temperature of $650^{\circ}C$, while conditions of nitrogen ($N_2$) pressure were varied between 0.1 mTorr and 10 mTorr. The quality of the AlN films was found to depend strongly on the $N_2$ partial pressure that was exerted during deposition. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the integrated intensity of the AlN (002) peak increases as a function the corresponding Full width at half maximum (FWHM) values decreases with lowering of the nitrogen partial pressure. We found that highly c-axis orientated AlN films can be deposited at a substrate temperature of $650^{\circ}C$ and a base pressure of $2{\times}10^{-7}Torr$ in the $N_2$ partial pressure of 0.1 mTorr. Also, it is noted that as the $N_2$ partial pressure decreased, the thermal conductivity increased.