Effect of sintering temperature on microstructures and mechanical properties of ZK60 magnesium alloys

In this study, ZK60 Mg alloys were prepared via hot-press sintering under a constant pressure of 30 MPa as well as Ar atmosphere. The sintering temperature was determined to be in the range of 450–600 °C with an interval of 50 °C. The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructures and mechanical properties of the alloys was investigated. All the four sintered alloys mainly exhibited an α-Mg-phase structure and equiaxed grain microstructure. However, a specific amount of melt, enriched in Zn element, formed when the sintering temperature reached 500 °C. Thus, only the alloy sintered at 450 °C maintained the nominal composition of the alloy powder, and exhibited the favorable yield strength and hardness, which was 135.1 MPa and 57 HV, respectively. The alloys sintered at 550 °C and 600 °C exhibited a reduced yield strength and hardness due to the loss of Zn element.

Hot press sintering effects and wear resistance of the Al-B4C composite coatings of an AA-2024 alloy

In this study, the surface of AA-2024 alloy substrate was coated with an Al-B4C reinforced composite using hot press sintering. Al and B4C powders were synthesized by mechanical alloying. To this end, four samples were prepared. As a reference sample, AA-2024 substrate was coated with pure Al powder under 110 MPa pressure. In the other samples, the AA-2024 substrate was coated with metal matrix composites (MMCs) contained in Al-5 wt.-% B4C at 90, 110 and 130 MPa. The microstructure of the transition zone formed between the AA-2024 substrate and the coating layer of the coated samples, the microstructure of the Al/B4C MMCs coating, the macro hardness, the linear reciprocating and forth wear resistance of the coating layer were investigated. In addition, an optical microscope (OM), scanning electro microscope (SEM) images and EDS analysis of the microstructure were used. It was observed that the B4C powders were homogeneously distributed in the Al matrix in the microstructure of the coating layer. It was also found that the gaps between the grains in the microstructure of the coating layer and their size decreased with an increase in pressing pressure. Accordingly, it was concluded that macro hardness increased and weight loss decreased.

The effect of hot-press sintering temperature on density of heavy alloys WNi5Cu3

The effect of hot-press sintering temperature on density of tungsten heavy alloys is presented in this paper. The experiments were performed for the WNi5Cu3 samples of W-Ni-Cu heavy alloy system. The hot-press sintering temperature was ranged from 1300 to 1440 °c with a constant applied pressure of 40 MPa. Subsequently, the sintered samples were annealed at 1000 °c in acgon atmosphere during 3 h. The results showed that the obtained heavy alloys had maximum density of 17,427 g.cm3 and final particle size around (10 + 15) mm. The obtained results met the requirement for fabrication of small balanced parts for aeronautical industry.

Effect of Vanadium Reinforcement on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Magnesium Matrix Composites

In this work, vanadium particles (VP) were utilized as a novel reinforcement of AZ31 magnesium (Mg) alloy. The nanocrystalline (NC) AZ31–VP composites were prepared via mechanical milling (MM) and vacuum hot-press sintering. During the milling process, the presence of VP contributed to the cold welding and fracture mechanism, resulting in the acceleration of the milling process. Additionally, increasing the VP content accelerated the grain refinement of the matrix during the milling process. After milling for 90 h, the average grain size of AZ31-X wt % Vp (X = 5, 7.5, 10) was refined to only about 23 nm, 19 nm and 16 nm, respectively. In the meantime, VP was refined to sub-micron scale and distributed uniformly in the matrix, exhibiting excellent interfacial bonding with the matrix. After the sintering process, the average grain size of AZ31-X wt % VP (X = 5, 7.5, 10) composites still remained at the NC scale, which was mainly caused by the pinning effect of VP. Besides that, the porosity of the sintered composites was no more than 7.8%, indicating a good densification effect. As a result, there was little difference between the theoretical and real density. Compared to as-cast AZ31 Mg alloy, the microhardness of sintered AZ31-X wt % VP (X = 5, 7.5, 10) composites increased by 65%, 87% and 96%, respectively, owing to the strengthening mechanisms of grain refinement strengthening, Orowan strengthening and load-bearing effects.