Development and design of binder systems for titanium metal injection molding: An overview

Titanium metal injection molding (Ti-MIM) has been practiced since the late 1980s. Logically, the Ti-MIM practice follows the similar processes developed for the antecedent materials such as stainless steel and ceramics. Although Ti-MIM is a favorite research topic today, the issue of convincing the designers to use Ti injection-molded parts still exists. This is mainly because of the concern about contamination which seems unavoidable during the Ti-MIM process. Much information about the binder formulation, powder requirements, debinding, and sintering is available in the literature. There are several powder vendors and feedstock suppliers. However, most of the binders in the feedstock are proprietarily protected. The disclosed information on the binders used for formulating powder feedstock is very limited, which in turn discourages their adoption by engineering designers. This overview intends to discuss some of major binder systems for Ti-MIM available in the literature. It serves to provide a guideline for the Ti-MIM practitioners to choose a suitable powder feedstock

Improving Compositional Text-to-image Generation with Large Vision-Language Models

Recent advancements in text-to-image models, particularly diffusion models, have shown significant promise. However, compositional text-to-image models frequently encounter difficulties in generating high-quality images that accurately align with input texts describing multiple objects, variable attributes, and intricate spatial relationships. To address this limitation, we employ large vision-language models (LVLMs) for multi-dimensional assessment of the alignment between generated images and their corresponding input texts. Utilizing this assessment, we fine-tune the diffusion model to enhance its alignment capabilities. During the inference phase, an initial image is produced using the fine-tuned diffusion model. The LVLM is then employed to pinpoint areas of misalignment in the initial image, which are subsequently corrected using the image editing algorithm until no further misalignments are detected by the LVLM. The resultant image is consequently more closely aligned with the input text. Our experimental results validate that the proposed methodology significantly improves text-image alignment in compositional image generation, particularly with respect to object number, attribute binding, spatial relationships, and aesthetic quality

Irradiation effect on impact fracture behavior of A508-3 steel in ductile-to-brittle transition range

The mechanical performance of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) materials is an important factor in determining the safety and economics of the operation of a nuclear power plant. The ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) tested by Charpy impact test is an important parameter for evaluating the RPV embrittlement. In this paper, the Charpy impact test of RPV steel prior and after irradiation was carried out at different temperatures. The fracture morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The irradiation effect on the impact fracture behavior was analyzed in the DBTT temperature zone. Results show that in the DBTT range, the crack initiation and propagation energy are obviously reduced for the irradiated material. After irradiation, the dimple area on the fracture surface is significantly reduced, and the distance from the crack initiation source to the gap is decreased. For the RPV steel with low Cu steel content, matrix damage becomes the main factor on material irradiation embrittlement