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Flash sintering (FS) is an important technique in the field of ceramic sintering. Nevertheless, conventional FS is less attractive for practical applications because of the complex shapes and small sizes of the specimens. In this study, using the novel electric field‐assisted hot pressing (FAHP) technique, we successfully achieved FS during the net‐shape hot pressing (HP) process for the first time. It was found that the 3 mol% yttria‐stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) can be flash sintered at 909°C using a fairly low DC field of 33 V/cm under 30 MPa pressure. The grain sizes of the FAHP‐sintered samples were 20% smaller than that of the HP‐sintered sample. When the current density limit is ≥240 mA/mm2, 3YSZ can be fully densified during the flash events. Careful analysis of the sintering curves suggests that although the carrier type or concentration is changed during flash events, it cannot explain the ultrafast densification. Additionally, we devised a qualitative method to analyze the densification mechanism. The results indicated that the ultrafast densification observed during flash events resulted from the synergistic effects of the rapid heating rate and peak sample temperature. Finally, the atomic force microscopy confirmed the lower grain boundary energy for the FAHP‐sintered samples, which accounts for the smaller grain sizes than the HP‐sintered sample. We believe that the FAHP technique could create new possibilities for theoretical and applied research on field‐assisted sintering techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports a newly designed induction heating system for efficient, fast, and safe flow-through heating. The system has a very simple architecture, which is composed of a transmitting coil, an isolating plastic pipe, and an embedded metal shell. Wireless energy transfer from the external coil to the internal metal shell through the pipe is essential for decreasing losses. Also, a large contact surface between a fluid and the immersed shell enables rapid heat transfer. The proposed heating system was systematically investigated for different shell geometries and the results were compared with a commercially available conductive flow-through heating device. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a prototype of the designed induction heating system was manufactured and the heating measurements were conducted with water. Power transfer efficiency of the prototyped induction heating system was measured to be 97%. The comparative study indicates that such high-efficiency induction flow-through heating system offers a great potential for replacing the conventional conductive heating device used in household applications in which the rapid and compact heating is desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZBLAN glass is a heavy metal fluoride glass that tends to undergo heavy devitrification, resulting in a crystalline material. It has many applications, including its use as an optical waveguide for fiber‐optic technology. However, when the glass is processed with traditional casting techniques, crystallites form readily that act as scattering centers, which results in large attenuation losses. In this study, it has been experimentally demonstrated that processing ZBLAN rapidly with a heating rate of 25 000 K/min and cooling rate of 4000 K/min yields test samples that are fully amorphous and retain a disordered molecular arrangement characteristic of its molten state. This novel method was developed using a specifically designed equipment named a Rapid Electro‐thermal Processing Device, or "REPD." The REPD applies ohmic heating and thermal conduction to a heat sink to rapidly process the ZBLAN material. The absence of crystallites in the rapidly processed ZBLAN test samples were verified using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Applying a theoretical algorithm, the critical cooling rate for yielding fully amorphous ZBLAN glass was determined to be 1081 K/min for a sample volume of 9.4 × 10−8 m3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of laser annealing on the mechanical properties of severely deformed low alloy steel is discussed. Two different sets of annealing parameters were used to achieve improvements in formability. The resulting microstructures, tensile properties and hardness distributions are reviewed. Annealing at temperatures around 700 °C with very high heating and cooling rates leads to recrystallization at the surface and moderate grain growth in subsequent layers. The improvement in ductility is proven to be sufficient to prevent cracking during bending operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new induction heating technology capable of controlling a precise exothermic distribution, which is termed zone-control induction heating (ZCIH). The ZCIH system consists of two or more sets of a high-frequency inverter unit and a work coil. The inverter units control the phase angle of the coil current to be in phase with each other. The ZCIH has the capability of operation with the mutual inductance, and enables locating the coils as close as possible. As a result, the ZCIH technology makes it possible to achieve rapid heating performance with extremely precise exothermic distribution. This paper presents experimental results of a 150-kW six-zone ZCIH system for semiconductor heat processing. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(1): 37–45, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience. wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20908 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]