Effect of Sc_2O_3 addition on densification and microstructure of different spinelized magnesium aluminate spinels

The densification and microstructure of different spinelized magnesium aluminate spinels（MAS） were studied adding Sc_2O_3 as additive. Sintered products were then characterized in terms of densification, phase analysis, quantitative elemental analysis and microstructure. The results show that Sc_2O_3 is found to be beneficial for the densification of MAS. Sc_2O_3 has a more significant effect on the densification of partially spinelized MAS batch than that of fully spinelized MAS batch. At the sintering temperature of 1650 °C, the bulk density of sintered products of partially spinelized powders increases by 0.243 g/cm3 as the Sc_2O_3 content increases from 0 to 4%（mass fraction） and that of fully spinelized powder increases by 0.14 g/cm3. Compared with the sintered samples prepared from the fully spinelized powder, the sintered samples using the partially spinelized powders as raw materials have more compact microstructures.

Hot pressing densification of WC-Mo_xC binderless carbide

WC-6MoxC-0.47Cr3C2-0.28VC binderless carbide was prepared by hot pressing （1700 °C, 20 MPa）. The sample was observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X–ray spectroscopy and X–ray diffraction. The results show that during the hot pressing process, W atoms dissolve substantially into the MoxC crystal lattices; whilst, the reverse dissolution of Mo atoms into the WC crystal lattices takes place. Consequently, the main phase and binder phase structure are formed. The phase compositions of the main phase and binder phase are a WC-based solid solution containing Mo and a Mo2C-based solid solution containing W, respectively. The isotropic dissolution and precipitation of W and Mo atoms do not result in substantial carbide coarsening. The mechanism for the densification was discussed.

Densification and microstructure evolution during SPS consolidation process in W-Ni-Fe system

Spark plasma sintering method （SPS） was used to consolidate mixed W-5.6Ni-1.4Fe （mass fraction, %） powders from commercial fine elemental powders, and both the densification behavior and microstructure evolution in sintering were investigated at different heating rates. The results show that the SPS densification process can be divided into three stages. At the initial unshrinking stage, fast heating generates instantaneous discharge and locally inhomogeneous temperature distribution in solid-state powder particles, enhancing later densification; during the intermediate solid state sintering stage, diffusion is more sufficient in the slow-heated SPS process; at the final transient liquid-phase sintering stage, tungsten grains become sphered and coarsen rapidly, but fast heating helps maintain rather small grain sizes.

Densification process of 10%B_4C-AA2024 matrix composite strips by semi-solid powder rolling

Semi-solid powder rolling（SSPR） is a novel strip manufacturing process,which includes the features of semi-solid rolling and powder rolling.In this work,densification process and deformation mechanisms of B4 C and AA2024 mixed powders in the presence of liquid phase were investigated.The relationships between relative densities and rolling forces were analyzed as well.The results show that liquid fraction plays an important role in the densification process which can be divided into three stages.Rolling deformation is the main densification mechanism in deformation area when the liquid fraction is lower than 20%.When the liquid fraction is equal to or higher than 20%,the flowing and filling of liquid phase are the densification mechanisms in deformation area.The relative densities increase with increasing rolling forces.The relative density–rolling force curves are similar at 550 °C and 585 °C.The characteristics of the curve shapes are apparently different at 605 °C and 625 °C.

Pressure sintering of W-15wt.%Cu alloys prepared by mechanical alloying as a subsequent densification treatment method

The sintered W-15wt.%Cu alloys fabricated by mechanical alloying were re-sintered under pressure to increase the density and improve the properties of these alloys. The pressure was applied vertically along the axis of the sintered sample. Properties such as density, hardness, and bending strength were measured. The microstructures of the sintered bodies were observed. The results showed that the subsequent pressure sintering could increase the density of the sintered W-15wt.%Cu alloys. Their hardness, bending strength, and some other physical properties were also improved by this subsequent densification treatment.

Densification Mechanism of Warm Compaction and Powder Mixture Designing Rules

By phenomenological analysis of warm compaction, it is found that, compared with the contribution of particle plastical deformation to densification of powder compact,the particle rearrangement is a dominant densification mechanism for powder warm compaction, and the plastical deformation of particles plays an important role in offering accommodating deformation for particle rearrangement and densifying powder compact at the final stage of pressing.In order to attain density gain as high as possible during warm compaction, six rules for designing warm compacting powder mixtures were proposed in detail.

Initial densification strain point's determination of honeycomb structure subjected to out-of-plane compression

Compression ratio is significant for cellular structures on energy absorption. In the present work, theoretical formulas to determine the initial densification strain of honeycomb structure were put forward by means of minimum energy principle. Detailed densification strain points were identified, with full fold model for kinds of specimens. To validate, corresponding numerical simulations were carried out with explicit finite element method. Excellent agreement in terms of initial densification stain point has been observed between the theoretical calculation and numerical simulation. The results show that: (1) a different honeycomb structure has different initial densification strain point, and its geometric configuration of cells plays an evident role on densification; (2) half-wave length of the wrinkle of honeycomb in folding process significantly influences on the densification strain point; (3) the initial densification point is an decreasing power function of the ratio of foil thickness to cell length, with the exponent 2/3. These achievements provide important references for design in cellular energy absorption devices.

Microwave sintering of Mo nanopowder and its densification behavior

In order to prepare high-performance Mo with fine and homogeneous microstructure to meet the demand of high-technology applications such as metallurgical,mechanical,national defense,aerospace and electronics applications,the microwave sintering process and densification mechanism of Mo nanopowder were studied.In this experiment,Mo nanopowder and micropowder were used for conventional sintering and microwave sintering at different sintering temperatures and sintering time,respectively.The results showed that with the increase in the sintering temperature,the increase rates of the relative density and hardness increased rapidly at first and then slowed down.The relative density rapidly reached 95%,followed by a small change.Mo nanopowder with a relative density of 98.03% and average grain size of 3.6 μm was prepared by microwave sintering at 1873 K for30 min.According to the analysis of the sintering kinetics,its densification is attributed to the combination of volumetric diffusion and grain boundary diffusion mechanisms.The calculated sintering activation energy of Mo nanopowder was 203.65 kJ/mol,which was considerably lower than that in the conventional sintering,suggesting that the microwave sintering was beneficial to the enhancement in the atom diffusion and densification for the powder.The results confirm that the microwave sintering is a promising method to economically prepare molybdenum with high properties.

Effects of selective laser melting parameters on surface quality and densification behaviours of pure nickel

The effects of laser power and scanning speed on the forming characteristic of scanning tracks,densification behaviours and surface roughness of pure nickel fabricated with selective laser melting(SLM)were studied.The results indicate that the scanning tracks showed continuous,regular and flat surface with increasing laser power and decreasing scanning speed in a specific range,which could avoid the defects(like holes and balling structures)forming in SLM processing.The optimal process window was identified as the scanning speed of 900 mm/s and the laser power of 255−275 W by comparing the surface qualities and densification behaviours.With the suitable processing parameters,the relative density could achieve 99.16%,the tensile strength was(359.49±2.74)MPa,and the roughnesses of the top and side surfaces were(12.88±2.23)and(14.98±0.69)μm,respectively.

Effects of carrier gas on densification of porous carbon-carbon composites during chemical vapor infiltration

The densification rate of C/C composites fabricated by directional flow thermal gradient chemical vapor infiltration process from C 3H 6, C 3H 6 N 2 and C 3H 6 H 2 was investigated respectively. The mechanism on the role of carrier gas in chemical vapor infiltration was also discussed. The results shows that whether or not adding N 2 as carrier gas has little influences on the densification behavior of C/C composites with the controlled temperature, the partial pressure of hydrocarbon and the effective residence time of the gas phase remain constant. When the controlled temperature is not less than 1 173 K,using N 2 or H 2 as carrier gas makes pronounced differences in densifying of C/C composites. The average bulk density of C/C composites from C 3H 6 H 2 is eight to ten percent higher than that from C 3H 6 N 2. However, when the controlled temperature is not higher than 1 123 K,the densification rate of C/C composites from C 3H 6 H 2 is much lower than that from C 3H 6 N 2, which implies that effects of carrier gas on densification of C/C composites are closely related to the type of carrier gas and infiltration temperature. At higher temperature, using H 2 as carrier gas is favorable to the densification of C/C composites, while at lower temperature, hydrogen, acting as reactive gas, can inhibit the formation of pyrolytic carbon.

Effects of MgO on densification and consolidation of oxidized pellets

The calcined magnesite was utilized as a kind of MgO bearing additive to produce MgO bearing pellets. The effects of MgO on densification and consolidation of pellets were investigated. The experimental results show that, at the same process parameters, the porosity and pore size distribution of green pellets have no evident relation with the MgO bearing additive, pore size of green pellets is between 15 μm and 35 μm and the porosity of green pellets is about 34%. There is a densification and consolidation phenomenon during the induration process; the pore size and porosity of product pellets decrease gradually; and the structure of product pellets becomes dense. MgO makes a negative effect on the densification and consolidation of product pellets, the densification ratio of pellets decreases from 46.3% to 28.6% with the addition of MgO bearing additive from 0 to 2.0 %. The porosity and the pore size of product pellets increase gradually with the increase of MgO content; When the mass fraction of MgO bearing additive increases from 0 to 2.0%, the pore size of product pellet increases and the pore size distributes in a large range. Also, the porosity increases from 18.61% to 24.06%.

A Numerical Study of Densification Behavior of Silicon Carbide Matrix Composites in Isothermal Chemical Vapor Infiltration

We studied the characteristics of two-scale pore structure of preform in the deposition process and the mass transfer of reactant gas in dual-scale pores, and observed the physiochemical phenomenon associated with the reaction. Thereby, we established mathematical models on two scales, respectively, preform and reactor. These models were used for the numerical simulation of the process of ceramic matrix composites densified by isothermal chemical vapor infiltration(ICVI). The models were used to carry out a systematic study on the influence of process conditions and the preform structure on the densification behaviors. The most important findings of our study are that the processing time could be reduced by about 50% without compromising the quality of the material, if the processing temperature is 950-1 000 ℃ for the first 70 hours and then raised to 1 100 ℃.

Influences of magnetic treatment on microstructure densification of diamond saw segments

The heated test pieces were treated with alternating magnetic field by self-made experimental facility firstly. And influences of magnetic treatment on microstructure densification of Diamond Saw Segments were studied through hardness testing, ultrasonic testing, metallurgical structure and fracture pattern analysis by comparative method. The mechanism of magnetic treatment is analyzed and discussed in the end. The results show that the hardness of test pieces after magnetized are harder than before, that HRB hardness is improved by 3.58 on average. The sound path and amplitude of echo wave both decrease in test pieces after magnetized. The relative pad value of echo wave is regularly related with the microstructure densification, what is profound to further establish the regularity studying the degree of matrices densification using ultrasonic testing. The pores become few and pore shape gradually spheroidizing with the magnetic treatment, and matrices are more homogeneous and compact than the without by metallographic microscope. The degree of matrices densification is further improved after magnetized. The average crystal grain size is finer than the without, and the reason of grain refining is that densification of diamond saw blade improved. Magnetic treatment can act as one kind of effective technique to improve the microstructure densification of diamond saw segments.

Low-temperature densification sintering and properties of CaAl_2Si_2O_8 ceramics with MeO·2B_2O_3(Me=Ca,Sr,Ba)

Dense CaAl2Si2O8 ceramics were prepared via a two-step sintering process at temperatures below 1000℃. First, pre-sintered CaAl2Si2O8 powders containing small amounts of other crystal phases were obtained by sintering a mixture of calcium hydroxide and kaolin powders at 950℃ for 6 h. Subsequently, the combination of the pre-sintered ceramic powders with MeO＇2B203 （Me = Ca, Sr, Ba） flux agents enabled the low-temperature densification sintering of the CaAl2Si2O8 ceramics at 950℃. The sintering behavior and phase formation of the CaAl2Si2O8 ceramics were investigated in terms of the addition of the three MeO·2B2O3 flux agents. Furthermore, alumina and quartz were introduced into the three flux agents to investigate the sintering behaviors, phase evolvements, microstructures, and physical properties of the resulting CaA12Si208 ceramics. The results showed that, because of their low-melting characteristics, the MeO·2B2O3 （Me = Ca, Sr, Ba） flux agents facilitated the formation of the CaAl2Si2O8 ceramics with a dense microstructure via liquid-phase sintering. The addition of alumina and quartz to the flux agents also strongly affected the microstructures, phase formation, and physical properties of the CaA12Si208 ceramics.

PLASTIC DEFORMATION AND DENSIFICATION FOR SINTERED POWDER MATERIALS

Equivalent yield strength of sintered powder materials is determined by experiments,and the following yield condition is constructed based on it.Experiments on uniaxial compression,and plane strain,closed die upsetting have been done using sintered copper,and the relation between the deformation resistance and compactness of the prefabricated preform is analysed.A design principle for the prefabricated preform density is proposed,and the effectiveness of shear plastic deformation to densifleation is pointed out.

Effect of heating rate on the densification of NdFeB alloys sintered by an electric field

This study introduces a novel method of electric field sintering for preparing NdFeB magnets. NdFeB alloy compacts were all sintered by electric fields for 8 min at 1000~C with different preset heating rates. The characteristics of electric field sintering and the effects of heating rate on the sintering densification of NdFeB alloys were also studied. It is found that electric field sintering is a new non-pressure rapid sintering method for preparing NdFeB magnets with fine grains at a relatively lower sintering temperature and in a shorter sintering time. Using this method, the sintering temperature and process of the compacts can be controlled accurately. When the preset heating rate in- creasing from 5 to 2000~C/s the densification of NdFeB sintered compacts gradHally improves. As the preset heating rate is 2000C/s, Nd-rich phases are small, dispersed and uniformly distributed in the sintered compact, and the magnet has a better microstructure than that made by conventional vacuum sintering. Also, the maximum energy product of the sintered magnet reaches 95% of conventionally vacuum sintered magnets.

Densification abnormality in reactive hot pressing of Ti and Al elemental powders

The densification behavior of a TiAl base alloy prepared by elemental powder metallurgy has been studied. It is found that a densification abnormality occurs at 1 400 ℃, i.e. the compact density decreases with the increase of hot pressing temperature. By microstructural observation, including optical microscopy and TEM, it has been concluded that the densification abnormality can be attributed to the different high temperature creep mechanisms induced by microstructure coarsening in the late period of densification.

Densification Model for Porous Metallic Powder Materials

A new mechanical model for powder metallurgy compaction is presented. In this model, various amount of voids can be introduced into a continuous solid, therefore porosity can be conveniently controlled. The elastic-plastic finite element method was used to analyze the sintered powder material. The model was used to simulate compressing of a sintered cylinder. MSC.Marc of MSC. Software Corporation was applied here, and the sintered powder model was built in MSC.Mentat. The sintered cylindrical powder metallurgy part is treated as a piece of normal metal with pores in the model. The metal block is considered as cylinder with a radius of 6.0 mm and a total height of 10.0 mm. Young’s module was assumed to be 4 000 MPa. Poisson’s ratio was 0.269. The initial yield stress is 210 MPa. Friction coefficient used for the upper and lower contact surfaces is 0.3. Coulomb principle is adopted. Considering axisymmetricity, just half a section is analyzed. Totally there are 1 240 elements. Experiment was carried out by a computer controlled a universal tensile testing machine. During the experiment, the sample was prepared from highly compressible water atomized iron powder with 0.6wt% polymeric lubricant. Particle size is about 100～150 μm. The comparison was performed using a sintered cylindrical sample. The green compact was sintered at 1 140 ℃ for 2 hours. Initially, H0 is 10.20 mm, Φ0 is 12.01 mm and the initial relative density is 0.789. After pressing, H is 7.30 mm, Φ1 is 13.10 mm, Φ2 is 14.64 mm and relative density is 0.88. The load-displacement curves agree with the experimental results very well. Plastic deformation of metallic material is mostly caused by the slipping of crystal lattice. Although very small, a metal powder particle is composed of metallic crystal. Mechanical properties of a powder particle should be very close to their as solid metal counterpart.

Study on Agglomeration and Densification Behaviors of Gadolinium-Doped Ceria Ceramics

By synthesizing reactive powders via a self-sustaining combustion synthesis, the glycine-nitrate process, the gadolinium-doped celia （GDC） with the chemical formula Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 was prepared. The resultant powders were dispersed with the terpineol as the dispersant through different methods such as ball milling and high-shear dispersing. Coagulation factor （CF） was used to mark the degree of agglomeration on the nano-scale GDC in this work. The effect of agglomeration on the densification behavior at different sintering temperatures was investigated. The studies indicated that agglomeration retarded the densification at the sintering stage. The powders with better dispersion exhibited a higher sintered density at the same temperature. After effective dispersion treatment, GDC could be fully densified at the sintering temperature of 1300 ℃. The densification temperature was significantly lower than those reported previously. The high sintering kinetics of the ceramics was obtained based on the agglomeration control.

Preparation of spherical ultrafine copper powder via hydrogen reduction-densification of Mg(OH)_2-coated Cu_2O powder

A novel process was developed to produce spherical copper powder for multilayer ceramic capacitors （MLCC）. Spherical ultrafine cuprous oxide （Cu20） powder was prepared by glucose reduction of Cu（OH）2. The Cu20 particles were coated by Mg（OH）2 and reduced to metallic copper particles. At last, the copper particles were densified by high-temperature heat treatment. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, tap density, and thermogravimetry （TG）. It is found that the shape and size distribution of the copper powder are determined by the Cu20 powder and the copper particles do not agglomerate during high-temperature heat treatment because of the existence of Mg（OH）2 coating. After densification at high temperature, the particle tap density increases from 3.30 to 4.18 g/cm3 and the initial oxidation temperature rises from 125 to 150~C.