Aluminum alloys are extensively employed in several industries, such as automobile, aerospace, and architecture, owing to their high specific strength and electrical and thermal conductivities. However, to meet the rising industrial demands, aluminum alloys must be designed with both excellent mechanical and thermal properties. Computer-aided alloy design is emerging as a technique for developing novel alloys to overcome these trade-off properties. Thus, the development of a new experimental method for designing alloys with high-throughput confirmation is gaining focus. A new approach that rapidly manufactures aluminum alloys with different compositions is required in the alloy design process. This study proposes a combined approach to rapidly investigate the relationship between the microstructure and properties of aluminum alloys using a direct energy deposition system with a dual-nozzle metal 3D printing process. Two types of aluminum alloy powders (Al-4.99Si-1.05Cu-0.47Mg and Al-7Mg) are employed for the 3D printing-based combined method. Nine types of Al-Si-Cu-Mg alloys are manufactured using the combined method, and the relationship between their microstructures and properties is examined.

Novel Ni- and Fe-based alloys are developed to impart improved mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The designed alloys are manufactured as a powder and deposited on a steel substrate using a high-velocity oxygen-fuel process. The coating layer demonstrates good corrosion resistance, and the thus-formed passive film is beneficial because of the Cr contained in the alloy system. Furthermore, during low-temperature heat treatment, factors that deteriorate the properties and which may arise during high-temperature heat treatment, are avoided. For the heattreated coating layers, the hardness increases by up to 32% and the corrosion resistance improves. The influence of the heat treatment is investigated through various methods and is considered to enhance the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the coating layer.

A new Fe-Cr-Mo-B-C amorphous alloy is designed, which offers high mechanical strength, corrosion resistance as well as high glass-forming ability and its gas-atomized amorphous powder is deposited on an ASTM A213-T91 steel substrate using the high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) process. The hybrid coating layer, consisting of nanocrystalline and amorphous phases, exhibits strong bonding features with the substrate, without revealing significant pore formation. By the coating process, it is possible to obtain a dense structure in which pores are hardly observed not only inside the coating layer but also at the interface between the coating layer and the substrate. The coating layer exhibits good adhesive strength as well as good wear resistance, making it suitable for coating layers for biomass applications.

Iron-based amorphous powder attracts increasing attention because of its excellent soft magnetic properties and low iron loss at high frequencies. The development of an insulating layer on the surface of the amorphous soft magnetic powder is important for minimizing the eddy current loss and enhancing the energy efficiency of highfrequency devices by further increasing the electrical resistivity of the cores. In this study, a hybrid insulating coating layer is investigated to compensate for the limitations of monolithic organic or inorganic coating layers. Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles are added to the flexible silicon-based epoxy layer to prevent magnetic dilution; in addition TiO₂ nanoparticles are added to enhance the mechanical durability of the coating layer. In the hybrid coating layer with optimal composition, the decrease in magnetic permeability and saturation magnetization is suppressed.

There is increasing demand for the development of a new material with high strength, high stiffness, and good electrical conductivity that can be used for high-voltage direct current cables. In this study, we develop aluminumbased composites containing C₆₀ fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, or graphene using a powder metallurgical route and evaluate their strength, stiffness, coefficient of thermal expansion, and electrical conductivity. By optimizing the process conditions, a material with a tensile strength of 800 MPa, an elastic modulus of 90 GPa, and an electrical conductivity of 40% IACS is obtained, which may replace iron-core cables. Furthermore, by designing the type and volume fraction of the reinforcement, a material with a tensile strength of 380 MPa, elastic modulus of 80 GPa, and electrical conductivity of 54% IACS is obtained, which may compete with AA 6201 aluminum alloys for use in all-aluminum conductor cables.

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• Synergistic strengthening of aluminum with SiC by grain refinement and dispersion hardening
  Kanhu C. Nayak, Juyeon Han, Suwon Park, Miran Joo, Kon‐Bae Lee, Donghyun Bae, Hyunjoo Choi
  Journal of the American Ceramic Society.2023; 106(12): 7340.     CrossRef
• Synergetic effect of milling speed and duration on particle morphology and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline Al matrix containing SiC
  K.C. Nayak, J.Y. Han, C.H. Jung, M.R. Joo, K.B. Lee, D.H. Bae, H.J. Choi
  Powder Metallurgy.2023; 66(5): 519.     CrossRef

The automotive industry has focused on the development of metallic materials with high specific strength, which can meet both fuel economy and safety goals. Here, a new class of ultrafine-grained high-Mn steels containing nano-scale oxides is developed using powder metallurgy. First, high-energy mechanical milling is performed to dissolve alloying elements in Fe and reduce the grain size to the nanometer regime. Second, the ball-milled powder is consolidated using spark plasma sintering. During spark plasma sintering, nanoscale manganese oxides are generated in Fe-15Mn steels, while other nanoscale oxides (e.g., aluminum, silicon, titanium) are produced in Fe-15Mn-3Al-3Si and Fe-15Mn-3Ti steels. Finally, the phases and resulting hardness of a variety of high-Mn steels are compared. As a result, the sintered pallets exhibit superior hardness when elements with higher oxygen affinity are added; these elements attract oxygen from Mn and form nanoscale oxides that can greatly improve the strength of high-Mn steels.