Search Results (2)

This study investigates the effects of Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) treatment on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)-manufactured Hastelloy H. This research evaluates the trade-offs between defect elimination, anisotropy reduction, and strength retention in well-optimized LPBF components. Specimens were manufactured using optimized LPBF parameters, achieving 99.85% density, and then subjected to HIP treatment at 1160 °C/100 MPa for 4 h. The analysis includes porosity analysis, grain size measurement, crystallographic texture evaluation, and tensile tests in two principal orientations. The results show that HIP treatment provides minimal benefits for defect elimination in already high-quality LPBF material, reducing porosity from 0.15% to <0.01%—a negligible improvement that does not translate to proportional mechanical enhancement. Tensile tests show that as-built specimens exhibited orientation-dependent strength, with XY-oriented samples reaching a yield strength (YS) of 682 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 864 MPa, and elongation of 17%, while XZ-oriented samples showed lower strength (YS = 621 MPa, UTS = 653 MPa) but superior ductility (elongation = 47%). After HIP treatment, anisotropy was largely removed, with both XY and XZ orientations showing comparable strength (YS ≈ 315–317 MPa, UTS ≈ 682–691 MPa) and elongation (38–41%). This indicates that HIP significantly improves ductility and isotropy at the cost of reduced strength. HIP treatment effectively eliminates the anisotropy of LPBF components, achieving uniform hardness across all orientations while reducing crystallographic texture intensity from 12.3× to 3.2× random orientation. This isotropy improvement occurs through grain-coarsening mechanisms that increase the average grain size from 7.5 μm to 13.5 μm, eliminating cellular–dendritic strengthening structures and reducing hardness by 32% (254 HV2 to 170 HV2) following Hall–Petch relationships. The conducted research confirms that HIP treatment allows for modification of the microstructure of Hastelloy X alloy, which may lead to the improvement of its mechanical properties in high-temperature applications and a significant increase in the isotropy of the material. Full article

Milk is a valuable contributor to a healthy diet as it contains nutritional components such as fats, proteins, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorous and vitamins. This research aimed to differentiate milk from animal, plant and human sources based on light propagation and random-laser properties. Experimental, statistical and theoretical analyses were used. Light propagation in different types of milk such as almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, fresh milk, goat milk and human breast milk was measured using the spectrometry method. Near-IR and visible light transmission through the diluted milk samples were compared. Soy milk and fresh milk have the highest absorbance and fluorescence of light, respectively, due to a high content of fat, protein and carbohydrates. Principal component analysis was used to determine the accuracy of the experimental results. The research method is comprehensive as it covers light propagation from 350 nm to 1650 nm of wavelength range and non-intrusive as it does not affect the sample. Meanwhile, analysis of milk was also conducted based on random-laser properties such as multiple emission peaks and lasing threshold. Higher fat content in milk produces a lower random lasing threshold. Thus, we found that milk from animals, plants and humans can be analyzed using light absorption, fluorescence and random lasers. The research method might be useful for future study of milk contaminants that change the properties of milk. Full article