In the current work, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of Graphene Nanoplatelets (GNP) reinforcement to water absorption behavior and mechanical properties of adhesive bonding with epoxy. Epoxy adhesive with various GNP content (i.e., 0.0~2.0 wt%) was utilized to joint aluminum adherend subjected to various immersion periods (i.e., 0~60 days). Subsequently, the effect of GNP reinforcement on water uptake, water absorption rate and tensile shear strength was investigated. Depending on GNP content, two distinct behaviors in water uptake and moisture absorption rate have been observed; specimens with lower GNP content (0.5~1.0 wt%) have demonstrated increased/retention of water uptake and water absorption rate regardless of immersion period. Meanwhile, at higher GNP content (1.5~2.0 wt%), decreased water uptake and water absorption rate are generally observed. At similar GNP content, regardless of immersion periods, water immersed specimens generally demonstrate higher or retention of shear strength when compared to specimens at 0-day immersion period. These observations suggest that the relation between moisture absorption behavior and mechanical properties of GNP-reinforced adhesive with GNP content are rather complex which might be attributed to the interplay of several possible mechanisms.

Solvent debinding is one of a crucial stage in Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) process. This process begins with the removal of the soluble binder components by using solvents such as heptane or hexane. In solvent debinding process, unsuccessful to achieve maximum binder removal will cause a defect to the compact such as crack and swelling. So to have an optimum solvent debinding parameters are very important to improve the quality of the compact. Optimisation of solvent debinding process parameters for MIM of Stainless Steel 316L has been testified in this study. Gas atomised stainless steel 316L powder was mixed with a multicomponent binder in a twin blade mixer at a temperature of 150 °C for 90 minutes. The feedstock was successfully injected at the temperature of 150 °C. The green compacts were kept in n-heptane for eight different debinding times ranging between 30 to 240 minutes at temperatures of 40, 50, 60 and 70 °C to remove the primary binder components. From the result, the optimum temperature and time for solvent debinding were recorded at 60 °C and 240 minutes. Solvent debinding temperature and time give a significant effect on the rate of paraffin wax removal.

The present work deals with a novel approach of fabricating harmonic structure in Al alloy through the application of semi-solid reaction between Al and Si. The harmonic structured Al was prepared by powder metallurgy route, where the Al and Si powder were subjected to controlled mechanical milling followed by subsequent spark plasma sintering to make a compact. The sintered compact resulted in a network structure of hard interconnected silicon dispersed region combined with Al-Si solid solution phase, known as “shell”, enclosing the soft phase of pure aluminum matrix known as “core”. The harmonic structured Al compact demonstrated retention of both uniform and total elongation as compared to its heterogeneous bimodal structure counterpart, which is the typical feature of the harmonic structured material. The application of semi-solid reaction between Al and Si in fabricating harmonic structure proved to be effective in improving mechanical properties of Al alloy. Present work also discusses the deformation behavior of the sintered compacts, with respect to its strain hardening behavior