Optimized Filling of a Given Cuboid with Spherical Powders for Additive Manufacturing

In additive manufacturing(also known as 3D printing),a layer-by-layer buildup process is used for manufacturing parts.Modern laser 3D printers can work with various materials including metal powders.In particular,mixing various-sized spherical powders of titanium alloys is considered most promising for the aerospace industry.To achieve desired mechanical properties of the final product,it is necessary to maintain a certain proportional ratio between different powder fractions.In this paper,a modeling approach for filling up a rectangular 3D volume by unequal spheres in a layer-by-layer manner is proposed.A relative number of spheres of a given radius(relative frequency)are known and have to be fulfilled in the final packing.A fast heuristic has been developed to solve this special packing problem.Numerical results are compared with experimental findings for titanium alloy spherical powders.The relative frequencies obtained by using the imposed algorithm are very close to those obtained by the experiment.This provides an opportunity for using a cheap numerical modeling instead of expensive experimental study.

Preparation and characterization of monodisperse zirconia spherical nanometer powder via lamellar liquid crystal template method

Cubic phase spherical zirconia nano-powder was prepared by a direct template route in the lamellar liquid crystal formed by polyoxyethylene tert-octylphenyl ether(Triton X-100)/sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS)/H_2O.The precursor powder and zirconia powder were characterized by XRD,FT-IR,TG/DSC,TEM,and SEM methods.Results show that the stability of the lamellar liquid crystal is controlled by NH_3·H_2O concentration.The size of nanoparticles is greatly affected by NH_3·H_2O and ZrOCl_2·8H_2O concentrations.The zirconia nanoparticles show narrow particle size distribution of 10-30 nm.

Effect of Spherical Ni Powder on Microstructure of Secondary Carbon in MgO-C Refractories Matrix

In order to tackle the shortcomings of high brittleness,hard graphitization,and poor oxidation resistance resulted from carbonization of phenolic resin of Mg O- C refractories, effects of 2 mass% spherical Ni, and2 mass% spherical Ni plus 7. 5 mass% Al composite powder on microstructure of the secondary carbon in Mg O- C refractories matrix were investigated. The results show that a large number of carbon whiskers form after the carbonization of phenolic resin with Ni powder;in the Mg O- C refractories matrix with only Ni powder,the carbon microspheres form at all treatment temperatures and change slightly with the temperature rising;the carbon whiskers begin to generate in the specimens with composite powder at 1 000 ℃,the diameter of the carbon whiskers is about 0. 4- 0. 5 μm,and the length is about 3- 4 μm,and the formed carbon whiskers increase gradually with the temperature rising.

Microstructure evolution of Al_(0.6)CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy powder prepared by high pressure gas atomization

The influence of cooling rate on the microstructure of Al0.6CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy（HEA） powders was investigated. The spherical HEA powders（D50≈78.65 μm） were prepared by high pressure gas atomization. The different cooling rates were achieved by adjusting the powder diameter. Based on the solidification model, the relationship between the cooling rate and the powder diameter was developed. The FCC phase gradually disappears as particle size decreases. Further analysis reveals that the phase structure gradually changes from FCC＋BCC dual-phase to a single BCC phase with the increase of the cooling rate. The microstructure evolves from planar crystal to equiaxed grain with the cooling rate increasing from 3.19×10^4 to 1.11×10^6 K/s.

Preparation of fine copper powders and their application in BME-MLCC

The preparation of fine copper powders by chemical reduction method was investigated. The reaction of [Cu（NH3）4]2^＋ complex with hydrazine hydrate gives spherical monodispersed fine copper powders. The spherical copper powder with a uniform size of 3.5 ± 0.5 μtm was processed to obtain flake copper powder having a uniform size of 8-10 μm, excellent dispersibility and uniform shape. The spherical copper powder of 2.5 ±0.3 μm in size, flake copper, glass frit and vehicle were mixed to prepare copper paste, which was fired in 910-920℃ to obtain BME-MLCC （base metal multilayer ceramic capacitor） with a dense surface of end termination, high adhesion and qualified electrical behavior. Polarized light photo and SEM were employed to observe the copper end termination of BME-MLCC. The rough interface from the interracial reaction between glass and chip gives high adhesion.

Controlled synthesis of monodispersed spherical ruthenium powders

Monodispersed spherical Ru powders are essential for fabricating high-performance Ru sputtering targets,which have applications in very-large-scale integration circuits and magnetic recording devices.However,the synthesis of such powders remains a major challenge.Here,we reported the synthesis of monodispersed spherical Ru powders through controlling the molar ratio of SO_(4)^(2-)to Ru^(3+)in urea homogeneous precipitation solution and the annealing conditions.Without the addition of(NH4)2SO_(4)into the reaction solution,only gel-like precipitation particles were obtained.Once introducing(NH_(4))_(2)SO_(4) into the reaction solution and controlling the molar ratio of SO_(4)^(2-)to Ru3+between 0.50 and 1.00,monodispersed spherical precursor powders were obtained.The nucleation and growth of monodispersed spherical precursor particles in solution were found to conform to LaMer's model.Through controlled annealing at 450℃in a hydrogen atmosphere,the obtained metallic Ru powder with an average particle size of 135 nm inherited the spherical morphology and excellent dispersity from the monodispersed spherical precursor powders.These results and findings would deepen the understanding of the preparation of monodispersed Ru and Ru-like powders.

Spherical modification of tungsten oxide powder and its mechanism analysis

Owing to its high production costs, complexity of equipment, and difficulty in controlling parameters, spherical or subglobose tungsten powder preparation method cannot meet the demand of industrial production. Tungstic oxide powder was treated by particle composite system and its effects were studied. Morphologies of par- ticles were investigated by scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. Particle size analysis was carried out and the related mechanism was discussed. The results show that the processing effect is best when the rotational speed is set at 4,000 r.min-1 for 15 rain： the powder particles become nearly spherical and their sharp edge angles are rounded off and reshaped. When the processing time is 60 min, the powders smash to pieces because of too much energy inputting. So the test results, such as grain size distribution, can be explained well. Nearly spherical tungsten powder is obtained after reduction at 780 ℃ for 2 h and its flow ability is significantly improved.

Effects of manganese substitution on magnetic and magnetostrictive properties of Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(1-x)Mn_(x))_(1.92)/epoxy composites with spherical single-crystal particles

Spherical Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(1-x)Mn_(x))_(1.92)(x=0,0.05,0.10 and 0.15)single-crystal particles were prepared.The magnetic anisotropy of the alloy decreases as x increases from 0 to 0.15.Subsequently,we prepared giant magnetostrictive composites with these spherical Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(1-x)Mn_(x))_(1.92)single-crystal particles.As a consequence,well<111>-orie nted Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(1-x)Mn_(x))_(1.92)composites with 55 vol%Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(1-x)Mn_(x))_(1.92)particles were obtained.The Tb_(0.5)Dy_(0.5)(Fe_(0.9)Mn_(0.1))_(2)composite manifests a good low-field magnetostrictive property and saturation magnetostriction at an axial pressure of 10 MPa,λ_(‖,saturation)≈2100 ppm,which is larger than that of the commercially available Terfenol-D(1400-1800 ppm).The preparation of composites with single crystal spherical powders may be an effective solution of developing high-performance magnetostrictive composites.