Rare earth metals are used in semiconductors, solar cells and catalysts. This review focuses on the background of oxide metallurgy technologies, the chemical and physical properties of rare earth (RE) metals, the background of oxide metallurgy, the functions of RE metals in steelmaking, and the influences of RE metals on steel microstructures. Future prospects for RE metal applications in steelmaking are also presented.

Intra-granular Acicular Ferrite (IAF), as one of the most well-known desirable microstructure of ferrite with a chaotic crystallographic orientation, can not only refine the microstructure and retard the propagation of cleavage crack but also provide excellent combination of strength and toughness in steel. The effect of adding cerium on microstructure and controlling proper cerium-based inclusions in order to improve properties in low-carbon commercial steel (SS400) were investigated. The type of inclusions can be controlled by changing S/O ratio and Ce content. Without Ce modification, MnS is a dominate inclusion. After adding Ce, the stable inclusion phases change from AlCeO₃ to Ce₂O₂S. The optimum amount of cerium, 0.0235 wt.%, lead in proper grain refinement and formation of cerium oxide, oxy-sulfide and sulfide inclusions. Having a high amount of cerium results in increasing the number of inclusions significantly as a result it cannot be effective enough and the inclusions will act like barriers for others. It is found that the inclusions with a size of about 4∼7 μm can serve as heterogeneous nucleation sites for AF formation. Thermodynamic calculations have been applied to predict the inclusion formation in this molten steel as well, which show a good agreement with experimental one.

There are serious questions about the grain structure of metals after laser melting and the ways that it can be controlled. In this regard, the current paper explains the grain structure of metals after laser melting using a new model based on combination of 3D finite element (FE) and cellular automaton (CA) models validated by experimental observation. Competitive grain growth, relation between heat flows and grain orientation and the effect of laser scanning speed on final micro structure are discussed with details. Grains structure after laser melting is founded to be columnar with a tilt angle toward the direction of the laser movement. Furthermore, this investigation shows that the grain orientation is a function of conduction heat flux at molten pool boundary. Moreover, using the secondary laser heat source (SLHS) as a new approach to control the grain structure during the laser melting is presented. The results proved that the grain structure can be controlled and improved significantly using SLHS. Using SLHS, the grain orientation and uniformity can be change easily. In fact, this method can help us to produce materials with different local mechanical properties during laser processing according to their application requirements.

This study aims to determine the effects of appropriate experimental parameters on the thermophysical properties of molten micro droplets, Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder balls with an average droplet diameter of 50 μm were prepared. The inkjet printing parameters of the molten micro droplets, such as the dot spacing, stage velocity and sample temperature, were optimized in the 1D and 2D printing of metallic microstructures. The impact and mergence of molten micro droplets were observed with a high-speed digital camera. The line width of each sample was then calculated using a formula over a temperature range of 30 to 70 °C. The results showed that a metallic line with a width of 55 μm can be successfully printed with dot spacing (50 μm) and the stage velocity (50 mm∙s⁻¹) at the substrate temperature of 30 °C. The experimental results revealed that the height (from 0.63 to 0.58) and solidification contact angle (from 72° to 56°) of the metallic micro droplets decreased as the temperature of the sample increased from 30 to 70 °C. High-speed digital camera (HSDC) observations showed that the quality of the 3D micro patterns improved significantly when the droplets were deposited at 70 °C.

This study investigated the transient transport phenomenon during the pile up of molten lead-free solder via the inkjet printing method. With regard to the droplet impact velocity, the distance from nozzle to substrate can be controlled by using the pulse voltage and distance control apparatus. A high-speed digital camera was used to record the solder impact and examine the accuracy of the pile up. These impact conditions correspond to We = 2.1–15.1 and Oh = 5.4 × 10 ⁻³ –3.8 × 10 ⁻³ . The effects of impact velocity and relative distance between two types of molten droplets on the shape of the impact mode are examined. The results show that the optimal parameters of the distance from nozzle to substrate and the spreading factor in this experiment are 0.5 mm and 1.33. The diameter, volume and velocity of the inkjet solder droplet are around 37–65 μ m, 25–144 picoliters, and 2.0–3.7 m s ⁻¹ , respectively. The vertical and inclined column structures of molten lead-free solder can be fabricated using piezoelectric ink-jet printing systems. The end-shapes of the 3D micro structure have been found to be dependent upon the distance from nozzle to substrate and the impact velocity of the molten lead-free solder droplet.