This chapter briefly outlines some of the basic aspects of failure analysis, describing some of the basic steps and major concerns in conducting a failure analysis. A brief review of failure types from fracture, distortion, wear-assisted failure, and environmentally assisted failure (corrosion) is also provided.

This chapter is intended to identify materials, processes, and designs that will lead to great advances in powder-binder forming technologies. It discusses some of the structures obtained through these advances in powder-binder technologies such as binder jetting and extrusion-based additive manufacturing, including bound-metal deposition and fused-filament fabrication: oxidation-resistant high-temperature alloys, anisotropic structures, submicrometer-scale structures, surface hard materials, and artist metallic clays. Some of the advances discussed include the developments in process involving plastics, emulsions, ceramics, and porous structures and foams. Improvements in the design processes have led to the development of functional structures, controlled porosity, and bioinspired structures.

This chapter provides an introduction to powder processing of binders and polymers. It sets the context for the remainder of the book by providing an overview of the topics discussed in the subsequent chapters and by providing introduction to powder-binder fabrication and customization of feedstock and describing the challenges in component production. The chapter also summarizes alphabetically a few key concepts in powder-binder processing.

This chapter includes a comprehensive set of definitions used in powder-binder processing.

This chapter introduces the key powder fabrication attributes to assist in the identification of the right powders for an application. First, it describes the characteristics of engineering powders such as particle size distribution, powder shape and packing density, surface area, powder flow and rheology, and chemical analysis. The chapter then describes the general categories of powder fabrication methods, namely mechanical comminution, electrochemical precipitation, thermochemical reaction, and phase change and atomization. It provides information on the two largest contributors to powder price, namely raw material cost and conversion cost. The applicability of various processes to specific material systems is mentioned throughout this chapter.

The conversion of feedstock into a shape involves the application of heat and pressure, and possibly solvents. This chapter discusses the operating principle, advantages, limitations, and applications of such shaping processes, namely additive manufacturing, cold isostatic pressing, die compaction, extrusion, injection molding, slip casting, slurry processes, and tape casting. Information on equipment setup, requirements, and the various factors influencing these processes are described. In addition, the chapter provides information on novel approaches and processing costs applicable to these shaping processes.

When a material is sintered and evaluated for performance, the primary focus is on mechanical properties. This chapter discusses structural properties for representative materials. Some guidelines are presented on the types of tests and how property values depend on the testing procedure. Mechanical hardness and strength tabulations are provided to document sintered properties.

Binder removal approaches involve various combinations of heat, solvents, vacuum, and pressure. In each variant, the goal is binder removal without component damage. This chapter addresses the factors that control success, showing how process decisions depend on the powder and binder characteristics. The chapter starts with a comparison of binder-, lubricant-, and polymer-removal situations that arise after powder shaping and then describes the general principles of binder removal in powder-binder techniques. The subsequent sections discuss in detail characteristics, operating procedure, equipment setup, advantages, limitations, and applications of first- and second-stage binder removal processes, as well as the factors influencing these processes. Cost issues associated with binder-removal technologies are also discussed.

This chapter provides details on several specific binder formulations and a discussion of basic binder design concepts. The focus is on customization of the feedstock response to heating, pressurization, or solvent exposure for a specific shaping process. The discussion starts with the requirements of a binder system, the historical progression of binder formulations, and the use of binder alternatives to adapt to specific applications. The importance of binder handling strength to shape preservation is emphasized. The chapter provides information on the binders used for room-temperature shaping, namely slurry and tape casting systems.

Stainless steel powders are usually made by water or gas atomization. This chapter describes both processes and the properties and characteristics of the powders they produce. It also discusses secondary processes, including drying, screening, annealing, and lubricating, and the effects of iron contamination on corrosion resistance.

This chapter discusses joining atmospheres that are used for brazing, along with their advantages and disadvantages. It discusses the processes, advantages, and disadvantages of chemical fluxing, self-fluxing, and fluxless brazing. Information on stop-off compounds that are considered as the antithesis of fluxes is also provided.

Photon emission (PE) is one of the major optical techniques for contactless isolation of functional faults in integrated circuits (ICs) in full electrical operation. This article describes the fundamental mechanisms of PE in silicon based ICs. It presents the opportunities of contactless characterization for the most important electronic device, the MOS - Field Effect Transistor, the heart of ICs and their basic digital element, the CMOS inverter. The article discusses the specification and selection of detectors for proper PE applications. The main topics are image resolution, sensitivity, and spectral range of the detectors. The article also discusses the value and application of spectral information in the PE signal. It describes state of the art IC technologies. Finally, the article discusses the applications of PE in ICs and also I/O devices, integrated bipolar transistors in BiCMOS technologies, and parasitic bipolar effects like latch up.

This chapter describes cast steel features that may be identified or attributed to component failure during heat treatment or subsequent processing or service, namely porosity (generated by the presence of gas as well as by shrinkage pores), decarburization, cold joint, and inclusions.

This chapter discusses the methods by which stainless steel powders are shaped and compacted prior to sintering, including rigid die compaction, metal injection molding, extrusion, and hot isostatic pressing. It explains where each process is used and how processing parameters, such as temperature and pressure, and powder characteristics, such as particle size and shape, influence the quality of manufactured parts. It describes the various stages of metal powder compaction, the role of lubricants, and how to account for dimensional changes in the design of tooling and process sequences.

Generally, binders consist of at least three ingredients: a backbone to provide strength (compounds such as polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene vinyl acetate, and polystyrene); a filler, such as polyacetal and paraffin wax, to occupy space between particles; and additives, such as stearates, stearic acid, or magnesium stearate, as well as phosphates and sulfonates, to adjust viscosity, lubricate tooling, disperse particles, or induce binder wetting of the powder. In the case of binders deposited via ink jet printing, the binder contains solvents to lower the viscosity for easier jetting. The chapter provides a detailed description of these constituents. The requirements of a binder as well as the factors determining the physical and thermal properties of polymers are discussed. Then, two factors associated with solvation of polymers, namely solubility parameter and wetting, are covered. The chapter ends with information on the specification of polymers used in binders.

This chapter discusses the mechanical properties of powder metal stainless steels and the extent to which they can be controlled through appropriate alloying and processing steps. It describes how process-related factors, such as porosity, interstitial content, sintering atmosphere, and heating and cooling profiles, affect strength, ductility, and corrosion resistance. It also provides an extensive amount of property data – including tensile and yield strength, elongation, hardness, and creep and stress rupture measurements as well as fatigue curves – for various grades of powder metal stainless steel.