International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

An experimental study was carried out to develop a technique for manufacturing a high silicon Al-Si-Ni sintered alloy with a coefficient of thermal expansion close to steels. A stage of hot forging was added to overcome porosity and improve silicon inclusions morphology to obtain better mechanical properties. Liquid and solid phase regimes of sintering were studied for the material made of the elemental components powders mixture as well as of a pre-alloyed powder. The impracticality of liquid-phase sintering modes is shown for this type of material primarily because of the tendency to liquid-phase exudation. It was proposed to carry out a solid-state vacuum sintering with subsequent hot deformation. Only the pre-alloyed powder is suitable for the technique; the other way, it leads to the course and sometimes, not equilibrium intermetallic inclusions will form in place of nickel particles because of the insolubility of Ni in solid Al. It is shown the possibility of successful plastic deformation of this material after sintering despite its extremely low ductility, which helps successfully overcome porosity and improve the characteristics of the microstructure of the material.

The research of the technology of obtaining new copper-ferrochrome composite material has been done. The results of its structure and properties analysis are presented. The material structure consists of the copper base, non-dissolved coarse inclusions of ferrochrome, diffused zones, forming around these inclusions and phases, having formed in the place of completely dissolved inclusions of ferrochrome fine particles. The material has good mechanical properties and a high wear resistance due to the formed solid solutions of the carbides in the copper.

The influence of high-carbon ferrochrome on the features of structure formation and properties of chromium carbide steels based on the Fe-FKh800 system was investigated. It was shown that the optimal combination of hardness and tensile strength with sufficient crack resistance has a carbide base of 65% Fe – 35% (wt.) FKh800. A typical microstructure of sintered carbide is a metal matrix composite consisting of chromium steel of composition close to Kh17 and double carbide (Cr0.799Fe0,201) 7C3. The effect of TiB2 additive on the structure, phase composition, mechanical and tribotechnical properties of materials based on the Fe- 35 (%,wt.) FKh800 system was also investigated. Additions of titanium borides in the amount of 0.38-1.48 (% wt.) leads to some increase in hardness, noticeable increase in the flexural strength and leads to increase wear resistance of carbidosteels.

The effect of TiB2 additives on the sintering temperature, structure, and mechanical properties of materials based on the Fe-FeCr800 system is investigated. It was shown that the introduction of titanium diboride additives leads to the activation of compaction and to a 50–70ºС decrease in the sintering temperature of the pressed composites based on iron. It has been studied that the addition of titanium diboride in the range of 0.38-0.74 (% wt.) provides, with a slight increase in hardness, an increase of 20-25% of the flexural strength of the composite 65Fe-35 FeCr800800 (% wt.), and also provides the formation of a multiphase, microheterogeneous structure of the matrix-filled composite type, which consists of chromium steel of the X6Cr17 type, double iron-chromium carbides M7C3, M3C and complex carboborides of the Me3(CB) type.

Titanium Ti-6-4 alloy coated with Ni-base material was obtained via Blended Elemental Powder Metallurgy approach by sintering a mixture of laminated powders. Microstructure and phase composition of obtained laminated material were studied, and formation of Ti2Ni phase and multicomponent phase (Ti, Ni, Al, V, C) with E93 crystal cell of space group 227: Fd-3m was established. The intermetallic melt deeply permeated into the Ti-6-4 material at sintering temperature (1250°C) higher than Ti2Ni melting point (942°C), and a dense gradient structure formed. The microstructure, phase composition and properties of obtained gradient material are discussed in detail.

The influence of temperature of sintering on structure formation, phase composition, microhardness of components of powder composite 65 % wt. Fe – 35 % wt. FH800 were investigated. It has been established that the increase in the temperature of sintering from 1050 ºС to 1250 ºС leads to some increase in volumetric shrinkage, density and decrease in porosity of samples of material which was made from coarse-grained source powders of industrial production components. It was found that the sintering of green compacts in the range of 1000-1300 ºС causes significant changes in the chemical and phase composition of the carbide component of the composite, which are described by a series of phase transformations: M7C3 → M3C (1000-1150 ºС) → M7C3 (1200 ºС) → M3C (1250-1300 ºС)

Equiatomic alloys TiCrFeNiCuC were made by two methods of powder metallurgy – vacuum sintering and hot forging followed by annealing. In the process of sintering the TiCrFeNiCuC blanks, the influence of entropy of mixing resulted in the formation of solid substitution solutions mainly on the basis of the FCC lattice, and also formed titanium carbide (TiC0.74). In samples obtained by hot forging and subsequent annealing, two carbides TiC and Cr3C2 were found, and titanium carbide being formed with lower carbon content (TiC0.58). In addition, the forged samples showed significantly higher values of the defect of the crystalline structure, which leads to increase in their hardness.

The results of the estimation for the influence of titanium diboride content in the initial powder mixture on the basic mechanical properties at the tests on tension and compression are presented. It is shown that the porosity of sintered at 1250 0C preforms from TiH2-TiB2 powder mixture increases with increasing of titanium diboride content in the initial charge, which is due to the manifestation of the Frenkel effect at sintering. The values of tensile strength, hardness and elastic modulus, despite some porosity growth of the sintered alloy, increase with the addition of 5 % of TiB2 powder, while increasing the content of the high modulus component in the mixture to 10 % leads to decrease in the level of these characteristics. The plasticity of sintered alloys monotonically decreases with increasing of the boride component content. At compression tests, the yield point and the compressive strength increase monotonically with increase in TiB2 content, despite the increase in porosity of the latter, due to a significantly lower effect of porosity on the value of the resistance to deformation in compression compared with tension. The use of hot forging of sintered powder preforms leads to increase of strength properties and hardness of the composites.

The results of development of the technology for manufacturing samples of insulators made of alumina ceramic with an aluminum oxide content of up to 95% are presented. The maximum tensile strength of the produced insulators has been investigated. The structures of the chip of the ceramic insulator surface have been obtained. It is shown that a change in the aluminum oxide content by 8-10% leads to an increase in the strength properties of the product by 1.5 times. The developed technology can be used to produce high-strength dielectric products, for example, antenna rod insulators, applied in the field of electrical engineering, radio engineering and other industries.

This study reports the milling time optimization of the Al-7 wt.% Si alloys by using planetary ball mill, the incorporation of 2 wt.% LaB6, NbB2, VB and TiB2 particles into Al-7 wt.% Si matrix and the fabrication of composites using cold pressing and pressureless sintering. Mechanical alloying (MA) time carried out for 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 h was optimized via crystallite size and phase determinations and microstructural investigations. 12 h was chosen as optimum MA time. Then, different particulate reinforcements were added to Al-7 wt.% Si matrix to constitute boride reinforced composites. All composite powder batches were also milled for 12 h, then compacted and
sintered at 570°C for 5 h. Microstructural, physical and mechanical (hardness and wear volume loss) properties of these composites were performed. Hardness values of 120.8 ± 11.37 and 121.77 ± 19.02 were obtained for the LaB6 and TiB2 reinforced composites, respectively.

The results of experimental studies of the compression process during the sintering under high pressure conditions of wurtzite boron nitride and diamond powders mixture of submicron sizes obtained by different technologies are given. It is determined that the compaction level at obtaining compositions depends on the dispersion and nature of the diamond component. Interaction of wurtzite boron nitride with diamond proceeds more intensively with diamonds of dynamic synthesis, but it is accompanied by their partial graphitization.

The possibilities of Fe-Al intermetallic system production by vacuum sintering and impact consolidation of powder bodies, as well as the influence of the regimes of the methods used on the structure and properties of iron aluminides were studied in the article. Mixture of iron and aluminum powders were used for fabrication of iron aluminide Fe₃Al. The powder samples were compacted and vacuum sintered at temperatures of 1250, 1350, 1400 and 1450 °C, and also using hot forging at a temperature of 1050 °C and 1150 °C. It is shown, that the increase of density is observed only at a temperature of 1400 °C. At sintering temperature of 1450 °C the samples reach a density of 6,35 g/cm³, which is 94% of the theoretical value. Only the use of hot forging makes it possible to obtain nonporous samples. It is shown, that bending strength, fracture toughness and hardness increase with increase of sintering temperature, but higher values of this parameters have the samples, produced with use of hot forging.