M2 high-speed steel samples were fabricated by laser additive manufacturing and tempered at different times at a temperature of 560°C. The microstructures of deposited samples were characterised by fine equiaxial grains, dendrites and inter-dendritic network-shape eutectic carbides and were composed of supersaturated martensite, retained austenite and M2C-type carbides. The content of retained austenite gradually decreased with increasing tempering times. Meanwhile, the micro-hardness of deposited samples was 688 ± 10 HV, while the first, second and third tempering times were 833 ± 13 Hv, 710 ± 6 Hv and 740 ± 7 Hv, respectively (standard deviations).Wear resistances of all samples showed an adhesive wear mechanism, and M2 HSS without tempering had a lower friction coefficient with an average of 0.52. M2 HSS after tempering twice at 560°C/2 h had a larger wear volume loss than others.

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Sycamore villus fibers were used to prepare hollow and porous carbon microtubes (CMTs) and the ZnO/CMT composite with heterojunctions by simple carbonization for the first time. Because the hollow and porous structure provided more channels to facilitate the adsorption and desorption of gas molecules, both CMTs and ZnO/CMT exhibited higher sensitivity and quicker response (<16 s) to and recovery (<2 s) from multiple target analytes. Furthermore, ZnO nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on the CMTs by zinc acetate-assisted carbonization, which avoided the agglomeration of ZnO and formed a large number of heterojunctions, greatly improving the sensitivity of ZnO/CMT. In comparison to the pure CMTs and ZnO, the response of ZnO/CMT to the four target gases increased by 1.4∼4.3 and 9.9∼18.1 times, respectively. Their limit of detection for NH 3 was calculated as 62.5 and 8.8 ppb, respectively. After 30 days, the responses of CMTs and ZnO/CMTs to 500 ppm NH 3 decreased by 9.4 and 6.5%, respectively. This indicated that CMTs and ZnO/CMT had high sensitivity and good long-term stability. This study provides a feasible way for the gas-sensing application of biomass carbon materials with heterojunction structures.

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Purpose Additive manufacturing (AM), a method used in the nuclear, space and racing industries, allows the creation of customized titanium alloy scaffolds with highly defined external shape and internal structure using rapid prototyping as supporting external structures within which bone tissue can grow. AM allows porous tantalum parts with mechanical properties close to that of bone tissue to be obtained. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, porous tantalum structures with different scan distance were fabricated by AM using laser multi-layer micro-cladding. Findings Porous tantalum samples were tested for resistance to compressive force and used scanning electron microscope to reveal the morphology of before and after compressive tests. Their structure and mechanical properties of these porous Ta structures with porosity in the range of 35.48 to 50 per cent were investigated. The porous tantalum structures have comparable compressive strength 56 ∼ 480 MPa, and elastic modulus 2.8 ∼ 9.0GPa, which is very close to those of human spongy bone and compact bone. Research limitations/implications This paper does not demonstrate the implant results. Practical implications It can be used as implant material for the repair bone. Social implications It can be used for fabrication of other porous materials. Originality/value This paper system researched the scan distance on how to influence the mechanical properties of fabricated porous tantalum structures.

The composite coating consists of an interior layer of mesoporous 45S5 bioglass and an outer layer of phytic acid/magnesium phytic acid compounds.

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Over the past several decades, aluminum foam (Al-foam) has found increasing popularity in industrial applications due to its unique material properties. Unfortunately, till date Al-foam can only be affordably manufactured in flat panels, and it becomes necessary to bend the foam to the final shape that is required in engineering applications. Past studies have shown that thin cell walls crack and collapse when conventional mechanical bending methods are used. Laser forming, on the other hand, was shown to be able to bend the material without causing fractures and cell collapse. This study was focused on the thermal aspects of laser forming of closed-cell Al-foam. An infrared camera was used to measure the transient temperature response of Al-foam to stationary and moving laser sources. Moreover, three different numerical models were developed to determine how much geometrical accuracy is needed to obtain a good agreement with experimental data. Different levels of geometrical complexity were used, including a simple solid geometry, a Kelvin-cell based geometry, and a highly accurate porous geometry that was based on an X-ray computed tomography (CT) scan. The numerical results were validated with the experimental data, and the performances of the numerical models were compared.