A surface-modified powder for laser sintering that allows improved incoupling of the radiation energy of the laser. The surface-modified powder avoids problems arising in the laser sintering of materials having a low absorptance for the laser radiation. The surface-modified powder has particles having particle cores and having laser absorbers bonded to a surface of each particle core, the laser absorbers covering at least 25% of the surface of each particle core and having a higher absorptance for laser radiation for laser sintering than the particle core.

Exemplary deposition methods may include introducing hydrogen into a processing chamber, a powder disposed within a processing region of the processing chamber. The method may include striking a first plasma in the processing region, the first plasma including energetic hydrogen species. The method may include exposing the powder to the energetic hydrogen species in the processing region. The method may include chemically reducing the powder through a reaction of the powder with the energetic hydrogen species. The method may include removing process effluents including unreacted hydrogen from the processing region. The method may also include forming a layer of material on grains of the powder within the processing region.

A preparation method for improving light efficiency and stability of light storing ceramics is provided. Calcium ethanol solution is added into titanium precursor solution firstly and oleic acid dispersant is added, pure water and the light storing powder are subsequently added to obtain a light-storing powder-calcium titanate gel, and dried, crushed and sieved to obtain xerogel powder. Glass matrix material, sieved xerogel powder and another dispersant are placed into a granulator, and directly mechanically stirred and granulated after adding pure water. A plasticizer is added after stirring 4˜8 h, and continuously stirred for 1˜3 h to obtain a mixture, pressing, drying and firing. Calcium titanate is manually introduced to protect the light-storing powder from hydrolysis or high-temperature oxidation. It can also change the propagation path of fluorescence inside ceramics, improve light absorption and fluorescence output efficiency and is conducive to ceramic molding.

The present invention discloses magnesia and a method for manufacturing same, wherein the magnesia can be produced into granules of various shapes and sizes and can be improved in moisture resistance with the formation of a moisture resistant surface oxide layer by donor addition and then thermal treatment. The magnesia according to the present invention comprises a MgO granule; and a surface oxide layer formed on a surface of the MgO granule and a composition of the surface oxide layer is different from a composition of an inside of the MgO granule.

Solar reflective roofing granules include a binder and inert mineral particles, with solar reflective particles dispersed in the binder. An agglomeration process preferentially disposes the solar reflective particles at a desired depth within or beneath the surface of the granules.

A sensor element of a gas sensor includes: an element base which is a ceramic structured body including a detection part of detecting a target measurement gas component; and a protective layer which is a porous layer provided in at least a part of an outermost peripheral portion of the element base, wherein in the protective layer, numerous convex parts each having a size of 1.0 μm or less and made up of ceramic microparticles with diameters of 10 nm to 1.0 μm are discretely formed around numerous ceramic coarse grains having diameters of 5.0 μm to 40 μm, the respective ceramic coarse grains are connected to each other directly or via the ceramic microparticle, and a degree of porosity of the protective layer is 5% to 50%.

Disclosed is a method for fabricating a solid article from a boron carbide powder comprising boron carbide particles that are coated with a titanium compound. Further disclosed herein are the unique advantages of the combined use of titanium and graphite additives in the form of water soluble species to improve intimacy of mixing in the green state. The carbon facilitates sintering, whose concentration is then attenuated in the process of forming very hard, finely dispersed TiB2 phases. The further recognition of the merits of a narrow particle size distribution B4C powder and the use of sintering soak temperatures at the threshold of close porosity which achieve post-HIPed microstructures with average grain sizes approaching the original median particle size. The combination of interdependent factors has led to B.sub.4C-based articles of higher hardness than previously reported.

A sensor element of a gas sensor includes: an element base which is a ceramic structured body including a detection part of detecting a target measurement gas component; an outer protective layer which is a porous layer provided in at least a part of an outermost peripheral portion of the element base; and an inner protective layer which is a porous layer having a degree of porosity of 30% to 85%, which is larger than a degree of porosity of the outer protective layer, inside the outer protective layer, wherein an average fine pore diameter of the inner protective layer is equal to or larger than 0.5 μm and equal to or smaller than 5.0 μm.

Disclosed is a method for fabricating a solid article from a boron carbide powder comprising boron carbide particles that are coated with a titanium compound. Further disclosed herein are the unique advantages of the combined use of titanium and graphite additives in the form of water soluble species to improve intimacy of mixing in the green state. The carbon facilitates sintering, whose concentration is then attenuated in the process of forming very hard, finely dispersed TiB.sub.2 phases. The further recognition of the merits of a narrow particle size distribution B.sub.4C powder and the use of sintering soak temperatures at the threshold of close porosity which achieve post-HIPed microstructures with average grain sizes approaching the original median particle size. The combination of interdependent factors has led to B.sub.4C-based articles of higher hardness than previously reported.

A manufacturing process is provided in which material is supported within a chamber. This material includes a plurality of discrete metal particles and ceramic disposed between at least some of the metal particles. At least a portion of the material is solidified together using an additive manufacturing system to form an object.