Jun Ting Luo

Superplastic Forming of Silicon Nitride at Low Temperature

Si3N4 ceramic bodies were prepared by liquid phase sintering (LPS) with the amorphous nano-sized Si3N4 powders. Nano-sized Al2O3 and Y2O3 powders were introduced as additives. XRD analysis showed that the sintered body consists of β-Si3N4 and Si2N2O which confirms that phase change temperature of β-Si3N4 is lower than traditional Si3N4. SEM examination showed that the grain size of sintered body is smaller than 300 nm. Superplastic forming can be undertaken at the low temperature of 1550°C in a nitrogen atmosphere when the forming velocity is less than 0.5 mm/min. The formed parts rupture when the forming velocity is 1 mm/min or the forming temperature is 1500°C. Only a few defects are observed in the blank before forming, but many cavity groups are present in the formed workpiece.

Superplasticity and Sinter-Forging of Fine-Grained Si3N4-Si2N2O Composite

The Si3N4- Si2N2O composites are fabricated with amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders by the liquid phase sintering(LPS) method in this article. XRD analysis shows that the sintered body consists of β-Si3N4 and Si2N2O. SEM experiment conforms that the average grain size of sintered body is less than 300nm. The superplastic deep-drawing forming can be proceed at a low temperature of 1550°C with a forming velocity of 0.2mm/min. There are only a few small sintered defects before forming, but there are a lot of cavity groups after forming. Cavitation failure occurs by nucleation, growth and interlinkage of cavities. The complex-shape gears can be formed by a sinter-forging technology when the sintering temperature is 1600°C and the superplastic forging temperature is 1550°C.

Hot Press Sintering and Superplastic Forming of Fine-Grained Si3N4-Si2N2O Composites

Si3N4- Si2N2O composites were fabricated with amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders by the hot press sintering(HPS). The Si2N2O phase was generated by an in-situ reaction 2Si3N4(s)+1.5O2(g)=3Si2N2O(s)+N2(g). The content of Si2N2O phase up to 60% was accepted when the sintering temperature was 1650°C and decreased whether the sintering temperature was increased or not, which indicated that the reaction was reversible. The mass loss, relative density and average grain size increased with raising of sintering temperature. The average grain size was less than 500nm if the sintering temperature was below 1700°C. The sintered body crystaled completely at 1600°C . The microstructure crystaled in 1600°C indicated that most of the grain size was in 150-250nm. The aspect ratio of some grains reached 1.5. The superplastic deep-drawing forming could be undertaken at 1550°C with a forming velocity of 0.2mm/min. The complex-shape gears could be formed by a sinter-forging technology when the sintering temperature was 1600°C and the superplastic forging temperature was 1550°C.

Superplastic Sinter-Forging of Fine-Grained Si3N4-Si2N2O Composite at Low Temperature

The Si3N4- Si2N2O composites are fabricated with amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders by the liquid phase sintering (LPS) method. XRD analysis shows sintered body consists of β-Si3N4 and Si2N2O. SEM experiment conforms that the average grain size of sintered body is less than 300nm. The complex-shape gears can be formed by a sinter-forging technology when the sintering temperature is 1600°C and the superplastic forging temperature is only 1550°C. Rod-shaped grains aligned along the perpendicular direction of pressure and the mechanical properties increase about 10% after the materials were forged.

Liquid Phase Sintering Behavior of Amorphous Nano-Sized Silicon Nitride Powders

The amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders were sintered by liquid phase sintering method. Si3N4-Si2N2O composites were in-situ fabricated. The Si2N2O phase was generated by an in-situ reaction 2Si3N4(s)+1.5O2(g)=3Si2N2O(s)+N2(g). The content of Si2N2O phase up to 60% was obtained at a sintering temperature of 1650°C and reduced when the sintering temperature increased or decreased, which indicates that the reaction is reversible. The mass loss, relative density and average grain size increase with increasing of sintering temperature. The average grain size is less than 500nm when the sintering temperature is below 1700°C. During the sintering procedure, there is a complex crystallization and phase transition: amorphous Si3N4 → equiaxial α-Si3N4→ equiaxial β-Si3N4 → rod-likeSi2N2O → needle-like β-Si3N4. Small round-shaped β-Si3N4 particles are entrapped in the Si2N2O grains and a high density of staking faults are situated in the middle of Si2N2O grains at a sintering temperature of 1650°C.

Superplastic Forming of Oxide Ceramic Composite

The paper mainly focused on the two issues that restricted the practical application of superplastic ceramics, which were the low strain rate in superplastic forming as well as resulted severely cavitation in deformed materials. The alumina-based composites Al2O3-ZrO2 (3Y) and Al2O3-30mol%ZrO2(3Y)-30mol%MgAl2O4 (AZ30S30) were selected as research materials. The nano-sized composite powders were synthesized by heating of ethanol-aqueous salt solutions method. The superplastic forming tests under the compressive stress state were carried out to evaluate the superplastic formability of the as-sintered materials. The results demonstrate that the following conditions are the essentials for attaining high-strain-rate superplastic forming in alumina based ceramic composites: reduction in the initial grain size by second phase dispersion and insurance of a homogeneous microstructure, enhanced diffusivity by co-doped certain elements, suppressed dynamic grain growth in deformation, as well as provide new rate-controlling accommodation process in superplastic forming. The results also indicate during the superplastic forming the cavitation damage was eliminated because of compression stress state, which ensured the mechanical properties after deformation. Therefore, the postdeformation mechanical properties after superplastic forming were enhanced in some extent.

Fabrication of MoSi2 Nanocrystal by Mechanical Alloying Large Particle-Sized Starting Powders

The MoSi2 nanocrystal was prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) large particle-sized starting powders, in which the milling time is much longer than usual MA time. It was found that the Mo-Si powder mixture mixed at stoichiometry proportion forms α-MoSi2 and β-MoSi2 in the MDR mode rather than pure α-MoSi2 in the SHS mode. The grain size of MoSi2, calculated using Scherrer′s formula, is 18nm when milled for 96h, and decreases to 12nm when further milling to 144 h. This is because that the milling balls provide enough energy to refine most of the rough crystal grain. The average grain size increased to 15nm when milled for 192 h, which indicates that further expand time could not refine the crystal grain while cause the growth of a part of the crystal grain. The particle size of MoSi2 is about 0.5μm when milled for 96 h and the agglomerating phenomenon is severe. The particle size of MoSi2 decreases to 0.4μm and releases the agglomerating phenomenon with the milling time for 144 h.

Wear Property of Superfine Grained Si2N2O-Si3N4 Composites

Si3N4-Si2N2O composites were fabricated with amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders by the liquid phase sintering. The mass loss, relative density and average grain size increase with increasing sintering temperature. The average grain size is less than 500nm when the sintering temperature is lower than 1700°C. Friction coefficient is from 0.35 for sintering temperature 1650°C to 0.74 for 1600°C when the composites were worn by silicon nitride bearing ball. High hardness of 21.5GPa and relative wear resistance of 32 were observed at a sintering temperature of 1600°C. The wear surface are very smooth and no grooving and subsurface fracture, which indicates that they are worn slightly.

Superplastic Behaviors of Casting AZ31 Magnesium Alloy

The superplasticity of magnesium alloy is important in industrial application. However the superplastic deformation of casting magnesium alloy is hard to be realized. In this paper, the stress–strain behaviors of casting AZ31 magnesium alloy with various strain rates at different deformation temperatures were investigated. The alloy was tested in the tensile condition with initial grain size of 25μm. It was found that the elongation of the alloy at 400°C with ε& = 4.25×10-4 s-1 is almost 200%. According to the results of uniaxial tensile experiment, the alloy exhibited superplastic deformation behavior with the slow stain rate in a temperature range of 350 to 450°C. The microstructures deformed and undeformed samples were observed with aid of optical microscope.

Superplastic Extrusion of Nano-Structured Si2N2O-Sialon

Nano-structured Si2N2O-Sialon composites were prepared by liquid phase sintering method with the amorphous nano-sized Si3N4 and nano-sized AlN powders. Nano-sized Al2O3 and Y2O3 powders synthesized by polyacrylamide gel method were introduced as additives. SEM examination shows the grain size of sintered body to be less than 80nm. Superplastic extrusion can be undertaken at 1550°C with a high velocity of 0.5mm/min and a big extrusion ratio of 3.57. There are a lot ring-shaped structure just like “annual ring” of trees in radial fracture and clear flow trace in axial fracture, all which is very similar to deformed metal materials and approve good superplastic deformation capability of Si2N2O-Sialon composites.