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This article presents the development of an innovative approach using the vacuum
submerged arc machining with aid of enhanced ultrasonic vibration to manufacture
nanoparticles. The Arc Spray Nanoparticle Synthesis System (ASNSS) previously designed
by the NTUTs Nano Laboratory has been successfully developed to generate
nanoparticles. In this proposed process, a titanium bar, as the electrode, is melted and
vaporized in distilled water, used as an insulating liquid. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic
vibration is applied to the electrode to remove the vaporized metal powders rapidly from
the melting zone. The vaporized metal particles are then rapidly quenched by the designed
cooling system, thus nanocrystalline particles nucleated and formed. This study discusses
the the influence of the ultrasonic amplitude and various process variables such as pulse
duration, peak current, and dielectric liquid temperature on TiO2 nanoparticles suspension.
C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
00222461
C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 1005
that the debris of die steel was alloyed with the tool 2. Experimental
electrode material. All these reports showed that the In general, all kinds of manufacturing processes of
produced particles were only in micro grade, but not nano-structured materials should have the following
nanoscale particles. five features [11]:
This research develops a manufacturing process
known as vacuum submerged arc discharging en- 1. Gas Sourcethe vaporization source of the solid
hanced by ultrasonic vibration, with a view of produc- phase or the liquid phase.
ing nanoparticles. The experimental device comprises 2. Heat Sourceprovide the energy required for va-
mainly a heating system, an ultrasonic system, a pres- porization or chemical reactions.
sure control system, and a temperature control system 3. Atmospherea vacuum or a space filled with an
[9, 10]. The primary method adopted in this research inert gas.
involves using an electric arc as a heat source, to pro- 4. Manufacturing process parameters monitoring
vide the energy necessary for the synthesis. The merit systemmonitor the temperature, pressure and gas
of using an electric arc as the heat source of a heating flow during the manufacturing process.
system is high power, the stability of the electric arc, 5. Powder collection system.
the sophisticated technology about the control system
of the electric arc, and low cost of system installation. This study uses ultrasonic vibration to enhance the
After an electric arc has been generated, by an igniter, vacuum electric arc discharge system for the prepara-
from the materials submerged in a liquid coolant held tion of nanoparticles. The schematic diagram of the ex-
within a vacuum cavity, an ultrasonic vibrator provides perimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The main technique
vibrational energy to the vaporized metal (within the involved in the process includes the use of titanium bulk
high-temperature fusion zone) generated by the elec- metal material to be produced as electrode and the in-
tric arc so as to impose a suitable degree of disturbance tegration of the device with an ultrasonic vibrator. The
to and impact upon the vaporized metal and eventually experiment device mainly comprises a heating system,
cause the vaporized metal to deviate from the fusion an ultrasonic vibration system, a pressure control sys-
zone. The purpose of the aforesaid method is to en- tem, and a temperature control system. Fig. 2 shows the
able the surrounding liquid coolant to function under a developed combined Arc Spray Nanoparticle Synthesis
good low-temperature cooling system, so as to suppress System. An Electrical Discharge Arc Heating System
the growth of metallic particles during the solidifica- (the EDAHS) with 50 kW power used as an arc genera-
tion process, with a view of producing nano-Titanium tor, was installed in the ASNSS. The vibrator used in the
metallic particles characterized by a perfect distribution ultrasonic vibration system is a Lengevin-type piezo-
of particles. electrical composite transducer with an input power of
The nanoparticles synthesized using the proposed 150 W and a frequency of 19.5 KHz. The pressure con-
method are of a suspension type, meaning they are dis- trol system is used to maintain an appropriate vacuum
persed in the fluid (deionized water). The nanoparti- pressure inside the vacuum chamber. The constant tem-
cle suspension synthesized by the proposed method us- perature system is employed to maintain a desired and
ing better process variables already demonstrate good constant temperature of the dielectric liquid, in which
dispersion and even without dispersant, they can still the vaporized metal aerosol can be effectively nucle-
remain in stable suspension for a fairly long time. In ated, thus preventing excessive grain growth. The heat-
other words, the nanoparticle suspension prepared by ing source generates a submerged arc to vaporize the
this study is readily usable for subsequent research or metals, which are the electrodes. Applied electrical en-
application purposes. Hence its practical applicabil- ergy then produces heating source for generating an ad-
ity is much enhanced. Moreover, all metallic materials equate arc with a high temperature ranging from 6000
whether they are ductile or brittle can be used to synthe- to 12000 C. In the development process, a titanium and
size different material-based nanoparticle suspensions copper bar is melted and vaporized in deionized water,
by the proposed method of this study. which is used as an insulating liquid. In addition, the
1006
T A B L E I Experimental parameters for two stage process
1007
Figure 5 Particle size distribution without the aid of ultrasonic vibration Figure 7 Particle size distribution with aid of ultrasonic vibration (tem-
(current 3 A). perature 0.4 C).
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Figure 12 The XRD pattern of Ti particle after oxidized to TiO2 .
the nanoparticle suspension prepared using the process 1. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted process can enhance
variables in Table II. As shown in Fig. 11a, with aid of the conventional vacuum arc spray process and can suc-
ultrasonic vibration which indicates good nanoparticle cessfully produce nanoparticles. The high frequency
dispersion with a mean particle size below 10 nm. Com- variation of the liquid pressure can improve the liquid
paring Fig. 11a with b shows that the size of nanopar- flow behavior substantially, and can avoid the accumu-
ticles obtained without ultrasonic vibration is larger lation of erosive product sediment.
than that with and that some nanoparticles aggregate 2. The peak current is one of the important param-
together, implying a relatively poor dispersion. The eters in the whole manufacturing process variables.
high frequency variation of the liquid pressure can im- Among the process variables, smaller pulse duration,
prove the liquid flow behavior substantially, and can lower dielectric liquid temperature, and smaller ultra-
avoid the accumulation of erosive product sediment. sonic amplitude are found to be conducive to the pro-
The ultrasonic vibration of the electrode prevents the duction of fine nanoparticles.
sedimentation of the nanoparticles in the working gap 3. The nanoparticles synthesized using the proposed
and results in their animated suspension in the deion- method are of a suspension type. In other words, the
ized water, which improves the deionized water circu- nanoparticle suspension prepared by this study is read-
lation. These features increase the discharge efficiency ily usable for subsequent research or application pur-
substantially and improve the state of dispersion of poses. Hence its practical applicability is much en-
nanoparticle suspension. On the other hand, the cav- hanced.
itation produced by the electrode ultrasonic vibration 4. The cost of this kind of ultrasonic vibration-
can re-boil the fusion metal in the erosion crater because assisted ASNSS is very low, thus this new kind of
of the sudden pressure drop. This process accelerates manufacturing method has an advantage in cost and
the fusion metal ejection from the erosion crater and production competition.
reduces liquid metal re-casting on the machining sur-
face. The nanoparticle suspension synthesized by the References
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demonstrate good dispersion and even without disper- 2. H . F R O E S and C . S R U Y A N A R A Y A N A , JOM June (1989) 12.
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4. R . P . A N D R E S and R . S . A R E R B A C K , et al., J. Mater. Res.
fairly long time.
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The XRD pattern of the nanoparticles produced by 5. J . S . S O N I , Wear 177 (1994) 71.
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4. Conclusions 9. T . T . T S U N G , H . C H A N G , L . C . C H E N , L . L . H A N ,
The manufacturing process, Vacuum Submerged Arc C . H . L O and M . K . L I U , Jpn. Inst. Metals 44 (2003) 1138.
Discharging Enhanced by Ultrasonic Vibration, devel- 10. H . C H A N G , T . T . T S U N G , L . C . C H E N , Y . C . Y A N G ,
H . M . L I N , L . L . H A N and C . K . L I N , ibid. 45 (2004) 806.
oped by this research, has successfully produced TiO2 11. X . M . D A I and J . L . W A N G , Chinese Powder Technology 5(6)
nanoparticle suspension by means of the traditional dis- (1999) 28.
charging processing machines. From the experimental
results and the discussion above, the following conclu- Received 3 September 2002
sions are made. and accepted 20 September 2004
1010