A microstructural analysis has been carried out on the commercially solution treated and aged (STA) Incoloy 909 superalloy to evaluate the phases present using optical, SEM, TEM and differential scanning calorimetry. Comparison is made where possible with non-standard STA analyses reported in the literature. In the STA condition, the main phase present besides the γ matrix was a deliberately produced Laves phase to control grain growth. Increasing the solution temperature above that recommended for the alloy resulted in eventual solution of the Laves phase and concomitant grain growth. In the STA condition, in addition to the Laves phase, a copious precipitation of a γ′ phase (Ni3TiNb) was observed. In addition, a limited observation was made of the early stages of the transition of some of the γ′ phase to the ϵ phase for the over aged condition. There was no ϵ phase observed in the STA condition. A final observation was the presence of ‘black grain’ previously reported in the literature, in both the ST and STA conditions in the authors’ research. The present view is that the phenomenon is an etching artefact and not a genuine microstructural feature.

In this paper, solution precursor plasma spraying (SPPS) was employed to prepare a porous YSZ/LSM composite cathode for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The surface morphology and microstructure of the composite cathode deposits were characterized using SEM. The effect of annealing treatment on SPPS YSZ/LSM microstructure was examined. The results showed that the as-sprayed YSZ/LSM deposits presented a porous aggregate with a size range of 10–60 μm when the alcohol was used as the solvent and the spraying distance was 60 mm. The porous aggregate was found to be composed mainly of small particles ranging from 0.2–2 μm, the YSZ/LSM composite cathode showed a finely porous microstructure with grain sizes from micrometers to sub-micrometers. A further annealing treatment at 1050 °C for 2 h in air resulted in a continuous microstructure porous coating with a perovskite phase. The polarization test results demonstrated that the minimum polarizations were 1.26 and 0.083 Ω·cm2 for the composite cathode at 800 and 1000 °C, respectively.

In this paper, a lead–bronze/steel bimetal composite was produced by vacuum diffusion welding technology. The microstructure, hardness and tribological properties under the dry sliding condition of the bimetal structured material were investigated and compared with two reference samples, i.e., lead–bronze and Mn/Si–brass. The wear mechanism of the three materials was also analyzed in detail. It was found that the bimetallic structure possessed the best wear resistance among the three samples. When paired with the ball bearing steel, the wear rates of the lead–bronze and Mn/Si–brass were 13 and 54 times higher than that of the bimetal composite. When paired with bearing steel, the wear rates of the two materials were 13 and 54 times higher than the bimetallic composite, respectively. This is because the steel layer served as a bearing layer to decrease the plastic deformation of the bronze layer. Furthermore, the lead can accelerate the formation of a dense hardened layer at the sliding interfaces to avoid subsequent wear of the bronze surface. Nevertheless, this hardened layer caused severe scuffing on the steel balls. Therefore, lead–bronze/steel structured material is recommended to match with hard counterface material, such as cemented carbide.

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