• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.523-524
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• 2006

The $TiB_2$ dispersion strengthened copper alloy was attracted as thermal and electrical functional material for the high mechanical strength, high thermal stability and good conductivity of $TiB_2$. In the present study, the focus is on the synthesis of $TiB_2$ dispersed copper alloy by spark plasma sintering process using copper oxide and titanium diboride as raw materials. The mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of sintered bodies were discussed with the sintering parameters, and developed microstructure and phase of sintered bodies.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.365-372
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• 2020

Predicting the quality of materials after they are subjected to plasma sintering is a challenging task because of the non-linear relationships between the process variables and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the variables governing the sintering process affect the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the final product. Therefore, an artificial neural network modeling was carried out to correlate the parameters of the spark plasma sintering process with the densification and hardness values of Ti-6Al-4V alloys dispersed with nano-sized TiN particles. The relative density (%), effective density (g/㎤), and hardness (HV) were estimated as functions of sintering temperature (℃), time (min), and composition (change in % TiN). A total of 20 datasets were collected from the open literature to develop the model. The high-level accuracy in model predictions (>80%) discloses the complex relationships among the sintering process variables, product quality, and mechanical performance. Further, the effect of sintering temperature, time, and TiN percentage on the density and hardness values were quantitatively estimated with the help of the developed model.

• 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.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2001

Spark-Plasma Sintering(SPS) is one of the new sintering methods which takes advantages both inconventional pressure sintering and electric current sintering. It is known that SPS is very effective for the densification of hard-to-sinter materials like refractory metals, intermetallic compounds, glass and ceramics without grain growth. However, a clear explanation for sintering mechanism and an experimental evidence for the formation of weak plasma during SPS are not given yet. In this study, fundamental study on sintering behavior and mechanism of SPS was investiged. For this study, various spherical Fe powders were prepared such as as-received, as-reduced, and as-oxidized and then sintered by SPS facility. In order to confirm the surface cleaning effect during SPS neck region and fracture surface of sintered body was observed and analyzed by SEM/EPMA. Densification behavior was analyzed from the data of deflection along the pressure axis. Some specimens were additionally produced by Hot Pressing and the results were compared with those of SPS.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.172-175
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• 2003

Mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder was sintered by Spark-Plasma Sintering (SPS) process. Densification and behavior mechanical property were determined from the experimental results and analysis ,such as changes in linear shrinkage, shrinkage rate, microstructure, and phase during sintering process, Victors hardness, and transver.ie-rupture-strength (TRS). Above 97% relative density was obtained after sintering at 115$0^{\circ}C$ for 5 min. Crystallite size determined by the Scherrer method was approximately 50 nm. From the X-ray diffraction analysis it was confirmed that the sintered bodies were composed mainly of NiAl phase together with Ni$_3$Al phase. Measured Vickers hardness and TRS value were 555$\pm$10 $H_v$ and 1393$\pm$75 MPa , respectively.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.326-335
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• 2009

Fe based (Fe$_{68.2}$C$_{5.9}$Si$_{3.5}$B$_{6.7}$P$_{9.6}$Cr$_{2.1}$Mo$_{2.0}$Al$_{2.0}$) amorphous powder, which is a composition of iron blast cast slag, were produced by a gas atomization process, and sequently mixed with ductile Cu powder by a mechanical ball milling process. The Fe-based amorphous powders and the Fe-Cu composite powders were compacted by a spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Densification of the Fe amorphous-Cu composited powders by spark plasma sintering of was occurred through a plastic deformation of the each amorphous powder and Cu phase. The SPS samples milled by AGO-2 under 500 rpm had the best homogeneity of Cu phase and showed the smallest Cu pool size. Micro-Vickers hardness of the as-SPSed specimens was changed with the milling processes.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.371-377
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• 2008

This paper deals with the phase analysis of $MgB_2$ bulk using spark plasma sintering process after ball milling. Mg and amorphous B powders were used as raw materials, and milled by planetary-mill for 9 hours at argon atmosphere. In order to confirm formation of $MgB_2$ phase, DTA and XRD were used. The milled powders were fabricated to $MgB_2$ bulk at the various temperatures by Spark Plasma Sintering. The fabricated $MgB_2$ bulk was evaluated with XRD, EDS, FE-SEM and PPMS. In the DTA result, reaction on formation of $MgB_2$ phase started at $340^{\circ}C$. This means that ball milling process improves reactivity on formation of $MgB_2$ phase. The $MgB_2$ MgO and FeB phases were characterized from XRD result. MgO and FeB were undesirable phases which affect formation of $MgB_2$ phase, and it's distribution could be confirmed from EDS mapping result. Spark Plasma Sintered sample for 5 min at $700^{\circ}C$ was relatively densified and it's density and transition temperature showing super conducting property were $1.87\;g/cm^3$ and 21K.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.280-284
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• 2012

Bismuth antimony telluride (BiSbTe) thermoelectric materials were successfully prepared by a spark plasma sintering process. Crystalline BiSbTe ingots were crushed into small pieces and then attrition milled into fine powders of about 300 nm ~ 2${\mu}m$ size under argon gas. Spark plasma sintering was applied on the BiSbTe powders at 240, 320, and $380^{\circ}C$, respectively, under a pressure of 40 MPa in vacuum. The heating rate was $50^{\circ}C$/min and the holding time at the sintering temperature was 10 min. At all sintering temperatures, high density bulk BiSbTe was successfully obtained. The XRD patterns verify that all samples were well matched with the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_{3}$. Seebeck coefficient (S), electric conductivity (${\sigma}$) and thermal conductivity (k) were evaluated in a temperature range of $25{\sim}300^{\circ}C$. The thermoelectric properties of BiSbTe were evaluated by the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT (ZT = $S^2{\sigma}T$/k). The grain size and electric conductivity of sintered BiSbTe increased as the sintering temperature increased but the thermal conductivity was similar at all sintering temperatures. Grain growth reduced the carrier concentration, because grain growth reduced the grain boundaries, which serve as acceptors. Meanwhile, the carrier mobility was greatly increased and the electric conductivity was also improved. Consequentially, the grains grew with increasing sintering temperature and the figure of merit was improved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2004

In the present study, newly developed spark plasma sintering(SPS) technique was introduced to refine the grain size of ${\gamma}$-based TiAl intermetallic compounds. Ti-46Al-1.5Mo and Ti-46Al-1.5Mo-0.2C(at%) prealloyed powders were produced by mechanical milling(MM) in high-energy attritor. The mechanically milled powders were characterized by XRD and SEM for the microstructural evolution as a function of milling time. And then, the MMed powders were sintered by both spark plasma sintering and hot pressing in vacuum (HP). After the sintering process, MM-SPSed specimens were heat-treated in a vacuum furnace (SPS-VHT) and in the SPS equipment(MM-SPS) for microstructural control. It was found from microstrutural observation that the microstructure consisting of equiaxed ${\gamma}$-TiAl with a few hundred nanometer in average size and ${\alpha}_2-Ti_3Al$ particles were formed after both sintering processes. It was also revealed from hardness test and three-point bending test that the effect of grain refinement on the hardness and bending strength is much higher than that of carbon addition. The fully lamellar microstructures, which is less than $80{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by SPS-VHT process, and the fully lamellar microstructure which is less than $100{\mu}m$ in average grain size was obtained by MM-SPS for a relatively shorter heat-treatment time.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.108-114
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• 2017

We fabricate fine (<$20{\mu}m$) powders of $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ alloys using a large-scale production method and subsequently consolidate them at temperatures of 573, 623, and 673 K using a spark plasma sintering process. The microstructure, mechanical properties, and thermoelectric properties are investigated for each sintering temperature. The microstructural features of both the powders and bulks are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and the crystal structures are analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The grain size increases with increasing sintering temperature from 573 to 673 K. In addition, the mechanical properties increase significantly with decreasing sintering temperature owing to an increase in grain boundaries. The results indicate that the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient ($217{\mu}V/K$) of the sample sintered at 673 K increase simultaneously owing to decreased carrier concentration and increased mobility. As a result, a high ZT value of 0.92 at 300 K is achieved. According to the results, a sintering temperature of 673 K is preferable for consolidation of fine (<$20{\mu}m$) powders.