• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.681-686
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• 2009

Direct laser metal forming technology was applied to restore the damaged mold surface. In order to estimate melting characteristics of the $20{\mu}m$ Fe-Cr-Ni powder, single layer experiments were performed at various levels of heat input. The process window of the $20{\mu}m$ Fe-Cr-Ni powder provided feasible process parameters for the smooth regular surface. The cross hatching scanning strategy on the multiple layer experiment was performed to reduce the thickness non-uniformity of edge portions compared with the one direction scanning. To estimate the coherence between the melted powder and the basematal, the tendency of hardness distribution has been observed. The hardness of the melted and the remelted zone was distributed from 400HV to 600HV. It is over 2 times compared of the hardness of the basemetal. Experimental results show that the mold restoring process using direct laser metal forming can be successfully applied in the mold repair industry.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2003

Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) is a new additive process producing three-dimensional metal components or tools directly from CAD data, which aims to take mold making and metalworking in an entirely new direction. It is the blending of five common technologies: lasers, CAD, CAM, sensors and materials. In the resulting process, alternatively called laser cladding, an industrial laser is used to locally heat a spot on a tool-steel work piece or platform, forming a molten pool of metal. A small stream of powdered tool-steel metal is then injected into the metal pool to increase the size of the molten pool. By moving the laser beam back and forth, under CNC control, and tracing out a pattern determined by a computerized CAD design, the solid metal part is eventually built line-by-line, one layer at a time. DMD produces improved material properties in less time and at a lower cost than is possible with traditional fabrication technologies.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.57-63
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• 2009

Interface friction in blanking dies, cold forging and extrusion of aluminum alloys is a major cause of inefficient process. This paper describes an investigation of femtosecond laser texturing for reduction of interface friction on sliding surfaces in forming process. Femtosecond direct writing technology was used to fabricate a laser micro-machined die and to create microgroove patterns with varying size and density on metal forming dies. A systematic approach to find the optimum parameters and computer simulation comparison of friction coefficients are provided to study the relation of friction coefficients and die profiles. In metal forming tests, the effectiveness of various laser-machined patterns for enhancing interface lubrication is determined.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.334-339
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• 2013

Direct Laser Melting is a prototyping process whereby a 3-D part is built layer wise by melting the metal powder with laser scanning. This process is strongly influenced by the shielding gas and the laser operating parameters such as laser power, scan rate, layering thickness, and rescanning. The shielding gas is especially important in affecting the microstructure and mechanical properties. In the current study, fabrication experiments were conducted in order to analyze the effect of shielding gas on the forming characteristics of direct laser melting. Cylindrical parts were produced from a Fe-Ni-Cr powder with a 200W fiber laser. Surface quality, porosity and hardness as a function of the layering thickness and shield gas were evaluated. By decreasing the layering thickness, the surface quality improved and porosity decreased. The selection of which shield gas, Ar or $N_2$, to obtain better surface quality, lower porosity, and higher hardness was examined. The formability and mechanical properties with a $N_2$ atmosphere are better than those parts formed under an Ar atmosphere.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.25-33
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• 2000

One of perspective direction of microfabrication is direct laser writing technology that allows to create metal, semiconductive and dielectric micropatterns on substrate surface. In this work, a two step method, the combination of seed forming process, in which metallic Al seed was selectively generated on AlN ceramic substrate by direct writing technique using a pulsed Nd : YAG laser and subsequent electroless Ni plating on the activated Al seed, was presented. The effects of laser parameters such as pulse energy, scanning speed and pulse frequency on shape of Alseed and conductor line after electroless Ni plating were investigated. The nature of the laser activated surface is analyzed from XPS data. The line width of this metallic Al and Ni is analyzed using SEM. As a results, Al seed line with 24㎛ width and 100㎛ isolated line space is obtained. Finally, laser direct writing can be applied in the field between thin and thick film technique in electronic industry.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.323-331
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• 2013

In this paper, two kinds of advanced powder processing techniques Metal Injection Molding (MIM) and Direct Laser Forming (DLF) are introduced to fabricate complex shaped Ti alloy parts which are widely used for medical and aerospace applications. The MIM process is used to strengthen Ti-6Al-4V alloy compacts by addition of fine Mo, Fe or Cr powders. Enhanced tensile strength of 1030 MPa with 15.1% elongation was obtained by an addition of 4 mass%Cr because of the microstructural modification and also the solution strengthening in beta phase. However, their fatigue strength was lower compared to wrought materials, but was improved by HIP. Subsequently, the effect of feeding layer height (FLH) on the characteristics of the DLF compacts was investigated. In the case of 100 ${\mu}m$ FLH, surface roughness was improved and nearly full density (99.8%) was obtained. Also, tensile strength of 1080 MPa was obtained, which is higher than the ASTM value.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1093-1100
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• 2014

The goal of this paper is to investigate preliminary the applicability of 3D printing technologies for the development of the hot bulk forming process and die. 3D printing technology based on the plastic material was applied to the preform design of the hot forging process. Plastic hot forging dies were fabricated by Polyjet process for the physical simulation of the workpiece deformation. The feasibility of application of Laser-aided Direct Metal Rapid Tooling (DMT) process to the fabrication of the hot bulk metal forming die was investigated. The SKD61 hot-working tool steel was deposited on the heat treated SKD61 using the DMT process. Fundamental characteristics of SKD 61 hot-working tool steel deposited specimen were examined via hardness and wear experiments as well as the observation of the morphology. Using the results of the examination of fundamental characteristics, the applicability of the DMT process to manufacture hot bulk forming die was discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.754-760
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• 2008

A two-photon induced photoreduction process suggests a possibility for fabricating complicated metallic microstructures which can be applied to 3-D micro-circuits and optical devices, etc. The process employs the photoreduction of silver ions in a metallic solution which is composed of metallic salt ($AgNO_3$) and watersoluble polymer ((poly(4-styrenesulfonique acid) 18wt. % in $H_2O$, $(C_8H_8O_3S)_n$)). In this process, the improvement of the resolution and the uniformity of fabricated metallic structures are important issues. To address these problems, continuous forming window (CFW) is obtained from a parametric study on the conditions of laser power and scanning velocity and the direct seed generation (DSG) method is proposed. Silver nano particles are uniformly generated in a metallic solution through the DSG method, which enables the decrease of a laser power to trigger the photoreduction of silver ions as well as the increase of metal contents in a metallic solution. So the two-photon induced photoreduction property of a metallic solution is improved. Through this work, precise silver patterns are fabricated with a minimum line width of 400 nm.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.90-100
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• 2010

Micro-conductive patterns were microfabricated on an insulating substrate ($SiO_2$) surface by a selective electroless nickel plating process in order to investigate the formation of seed layers. To fabricate micro-conductive patterns, a thin layer of metal (Cu.Cr) was deposited in the desired micropattern using laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT). and above this layer, a second layer was plated by selective electroless plating. The LIFT process. which was carried out in multi-scan mode, was used to fabricate micro-conductive patterns via electroless nickel plating. This method helps to improve the deposition process for forming seed patterns on the insulating substrate surface and the electrical conductivity of the resulting patterns. This study analyzes the effect of seed pattern formation by LIFT and key parameters in electroless nickel plating during micro-conductive pattern fabrication. The effects of the process variables on the cross-sectional shape and surface quality of the deposited patterns are examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and an optical microscope.