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It is not easy to fabricate the complicate shaped titanium aluminide (Ti-Al) components by conventional methods such as machining or forging, and casting leads to inhomogeneous microstructures. Metal injection molding (MIM) has the potential to be a cost-efficient process and near net shape technique, especially for the complex shaped mass-produced components. In this study, Ti-Al intermetallic alloy compacts were fabricated through MIM technique. Sound compacts with over 95 % of relative density and without any warpage or defects were obtained thorough MIM process. Different microstructures of duplex, near lamellar, and full lamellar were obtained by changing the sintering temperature. Their tensile strength at room and high temperature is 85 to 90 % of that of wrought material. Tensile strength of MIM compact would be expected the same level with cast materials by optimization of sintering conditions, densification by HIP treatment and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Ni-based superalloy has poor workability, direct laser forming (DLF) would be a powerful tool for fabricating the complex shaped Ni-based superalloy parts. We focused on the microstructure of the parts produced by DLF, the crystal grains of which grow along the building direction. This anisotropic microstructure is one of the major features of the parts produced by DLF, and which may cause anisotropic mechanical properties. In this work, the optimum laser-forming conditions such as laser power, laser scan speed, and powder feeding rate were determined by evaluating the density of the produced parts. Three types of tensile test pieces and two types of fatigue test pieces were fabricated in different building direction. They had higher ultimate tensile strength than that of JIS standards in wrought materials. However, their elongation was lower than that of JIS standards, and also the dispersion of elongation was large. On the other hand, fatigue limit was a little lower than the standard value. It was confirmed that the mechanical properties of Ni-based superalloy parts produced by DLF were different by a difference in building direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium alloys show not only the excellent mechanical properties but also good biocompatibility. However, they show normally poor machinability, which become the disadvantage of high processing cost. Metal injection molding (MIM) process is one of the techniques to improve that drawback. Because MIM process can produce the three dimensional complex shaped parts at low cost. Ti-6Al-4V is a typical titanium alloy and the MIM compacts show high static strength as same as wrought materials. However, their fatigue strength is a little low level as compared to wrought materials. To improve the mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy compacts, it is important to refine the grain size and increase the relative density. In this study, the effects of the particle size of the powders on the mechanical properties were investigated. The use of a fine powder improved the mechanical properties because of their high density. Moreover, the crystal grain growth was restrained as compared to the case of the same relative density using larger powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ti-6Al-4V alloy has attracted a lot of attention from the automotive and aerospace industries because of their outstanding specific strength and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, Ti-6Al-4V alloy has normally poor workability because of the low thermal conductivity and the low elastic modulus. Metal injection molding (MIM) process is expected to manufacture a complex part with near net shape and reduce the manufacturing cost. However, Ti-6Al-4V alloy compacts by MIM process had a problem of low fatigue strength compared to wrought material. In this study, we tried to add a minor amount of boron using TiB2 powder for improving the fatigue strength. Addition of boron resulted refinement of the grain size of lamellar structure, which lead to increase the high cycle fatigue strength and fatigue limit. In addition, tensile properties at high temperature was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro channels made of polymers are commonly used for MEMS and μTAS (micro-total analysis system) devices. In this research, we developed a process for fabricating a ceramic sheet with micro channels. The developed process is based on powder metallurgy process. A compound material, a mixture of ceramic powder and polymer, was prepared as sheet material. We employed laser machining to machine the sacrificial layer to form micro channels inside the sheet. We also employed imprinting, which is a process of pressing with a mould while heating, to form a structure with surface patterns and micro channels curving along with it. After the imprinted sheet was debound and sintered by heating, a ceramic sheet with micro-surface patterns and micro channels was obtained. As ceramics have high heat durability and low chemical reactivity, ceramic micro channels can be used for flow sensors or chemical reaction testers operated in harsh environments, such as high temperature or mechanical parts operated with reactive chemicals. In addition, by imprinting wavy patterns, the surface area can be increased. Therefore high efficiency heat exchangers can be built. Moreover, this method can be applied on SOFCs (solid oxide fuel cell) by fabricating YSZ (yttria stabilized zirconia) micro channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) has been used for an electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). To enhance the efficiency of SOFC, we developed a corrugated, or wavy-shaped, YSZ sheet for the electrolyte. As the corrugated sheet has larger surface area than a flat-type sheet, higher energy density can be obtained. We have proposed micro powder imprint (μPI) with multi-layer imprint process to fabricate micro scale pattern on the both surfaces of a thin YSZ sheet. The μPI is a combined process of nano imprint lithography and powder metallurgy; the resolution is high, and the process is mass-productive. In this work, we selected a compound material containing YSZ powder and a binder consisting of thermoplastic resin as a starting material. The compound sheet was prepared by tape casting from slurry and was imprinted by a fine-patterned mold with stacked on a silicone rubber sheet. The silicone rubber was so flexible that micro patterns on the both sides of the compound sheet was obtained after imprint. In the present work, the process condition of μPI and the heat program of debinding and sintering were also considered. As a result, a wave-type sintered YSZ sheet without significant defects was successfully obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superalloy has been used for aerospace application because of their excellent attributes of high strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature. Inconel 718 is one of the representative Ni-based superalloy. Generally, superalloy has poor workability, especially high tool wear by machining, so that it is not easy to produce the components of complex shaped parts at low cost. To overcome such as the problem, metal injection molding (MIM) process would be a useful technique which offers net shape production, high design flexibility, and high cost efficiency for mass production. In this study, gas-atomized fine alloy powder of Inconel 718 was prepared for MIM process, and the mechanical properties of injection molded compacts were investigated. The relative density over 99.7 %, which is much higher than density of usual MIM compacts, was obtained by supersolidious liquid-phase sintering. Furthermore, injection molded Inconel 718 showed high fatigue strength comparable to the wrought materials, because the pore size of the MIM compacts was smaller than the inclusion size of wrought materials. And it was found that the grain size was more dominant than pore size against the fatigue failure of MIM Inconel 718 with near full density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the work reported in this paper is to create multi-scale and hierarchical surface structures using a simple imprinting process. The hierarchical structures can be fabricated with only simple patterned molds by proposed multi-step imprinting process, instead of using a high cost hierarchical-patterned mold. In the proposed process, the starting material is a layered sheet material. The layered sheet is pressed by a mold with a finer pattern, and subsequently pressed by a mold with a rougher pattern. A pure polymer sheet is employed as the upper layer, which will be removed during heating processes as a sacrificed layer, while the lower layer is a compound material of polymer and ceramic powder. After heating process, ceramic compact is sintered and formed a full-dense patterned sheet. By the proposed multi-step imprinting process with a layered material, ceramic sheets with micro hierarchical pattern can be fabricated with low cost. In the present work, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was prepared as the upper layer, and a compound material of alumina powder and PVA as a lower layer. Molds with finer and rougher patterns were also prepared for multi-step imprinting. As a result, a hierarchical structure on a thin ceramic sheet could be fabricated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the dynamic-fracture characteristics of injection-molded titanium-alloy compacts. Particular focus is given to the rotating-molded titanium characteristics of injection-molded commercially pure titanium. The result of the experimental data was interpreted, with an emphasis on the potential of the introduction of chromium or boron to improve the fatigue strength of metal injection molding elemental titanium.