Soft magnetic powder materials are used throughout industries such as motors and power converters. When manufacturing Fe-based soft magnetic composites, the size and shape of the soft magnetic powder and the microstructure in the powder are closely related to the magnetic properties. In this study, Fe-Si-Al-P alloy powders were manufactured using various manufacturing process parameter sets, and the process parameters of the vacuum induction melt gas atomization process were set as melt temperature, atomization gas pressure, and gas flow rate. Process variable data that records are converted into 6 types of data for each powder recovery section. Process variable data that recorded minute changes were converted into 6 types of data and used as input variables. As output variables, a total of 6 types were designated by measuring the particle size, flowability, apparent density, and sphericity of the manufactured powders according to the process variable conditions. The sensitivity of the input and output variables was analyzed through the Pearson correlation coefficient, and a total of 6 powder characteristics were analyzed by artificial neural network model. The prediction results were compared with the results through linear regression analysis and response surface methodology, respectively.

The synthesis of porous W by freeze-casting and vacuum drying is investigated. Ball-milled WO₃ powders and tert-butyl alcohol were used as the starting materials. The tert-butyl alcohol slurry is frozen at –25°C and dried under vacuum at –25 and –10°C. The dried bodies are hydrogen-reduced at 800°C and sintered at 1000°C. The XRD analysis shows that WO₃ is completely reduced to W without any reaction phases. SEM observations reveal that the struts and pores aligned in the tert-butyl alcohol growth direction, and the change in the powder content and drying temperature affects the pore structure. Furthermore, the struts of the porous body fabricated under vacuum are thinner than those fabricated under atmospheric pressure. This behavior is explained by the growth mechanism of tert-butyl alcohol and rearrangement of the powders during solidification. These results suggest that the pore structure of a porous body can be controlled by the powder content, drying temperature, and pressure.