Recently, as environmental issues caused by gas stoves have led to the widespread adoption of induction appliances, specialized cookware for induction is essential. However, due to the inability of ceramic containers to be directly used on induction cooktops, a conductive coating is required on the bottom of the cookware, presenting limitations such as complex deposition processes and extended coating times in existing methods including thermal spraying, dip coating, and transcription method. We confirmed the potential of heat-resistant cookware for induction use by coating the bottom of the ceramic container with Ag through a simple manufacturing process of screen-printing and measuring its thermal conductivity and reliability. The Ag-coated ceramic cookware produced by screen-printing demonstrated similar thermal conductivity and reliability to those made using the traditional method of transfer printing. In addition, the adhesive strength before and after thermal shock testing was even superior in the screen-printing method, which suggests a higher expected lifespan. As a result, it is expected that induction-compatible heat-resistant ceramic containers with excellent performance and lifespan will be manufactured through the screen-printing process, which is more cost-effective and efficient compared to other methods.
Heaters using the resistance heating principle are used in various industrial fields that require heat and are also essentially used in bidet among small home appliances. A planar heater and a coil-inserted heater mounted on a conventional commercially used bidet have disadvantages and limitations of complicated manufacturing process and local heating. In this study, silver-palladium (Ag-Pd) powder material was used for a screen-printing process that is more advantageous in achieving simplification than the existing process, and a rod-type heater for bidet was manufactured. The on-off cycle test under actual conditions was conducted to confirm the durability and the capability of the fabricated heater, and the fabricated heater operated more than 2,600 on-off cycles, which means it could be applied for a commercial product. In addition, through the on-off cycles under harsh conditions, the cause of failure was identified after the test that the durability limit temperature of the heater was 850℃. Through Ag-Pd rod heater in this study, it is expected to contribute to the efficient development of electrode materials for heaters and the improvement of the durability of heaters in the future.
With the expansion in the use of DC power systems and increased need for system maintenance, the development of measurement devices for maintenance requires high stability. Of the different kinds of DC current measurement devices, the single-shot measurement device causes the input signal of the current measuring unit to initially generate a high inrush current. The high inrush current flows into the signal processor of the meter, shortening the life of the internal fuses and causing failure. Therefore, in this study, the I2t value for increasing the durability of the fuse is designed using the available wire diameter. Operating characteristics for 210~400% over-current of the rated current, which is relatively low over-current, are realized by the plating of low melting tin metal. As a result, a method of designing a fuse element for a DC power supply, which improves the safety of the DC current measurement device by blocking the failure caused by the inrush current, is presented.
DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cell) is expected to be one of the next-generation photovoltaics because of its environment-friendly and low-cost properties. However, commercialization of DSSC is difficult because of the electrolyte leakage. We propose thermal curable base on silicon resin and apply a unit cell and large area (200×200 mm) dye-sensitized solar cell. The resin aimed at sealing of DSSC and gives a promising resolution for sealing of practical DSSC. In result, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the unit cell and the module was 6.63% and 5.49%, respectively. In the durability test result, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the module during 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 hours was 0.73%, 0.73%, 1.82% and 2.36% respectively. It was confirmed that the photoelectric conversion efficiency characteristics are constant. We have developed encapsulation material of thermal curing method excellent in chemical resistance. A sealing material was applied to the dye-sensitized solar cell and it solved the problem of durability the dye-sensitized solar cell. Sealing material may be applied to verify the possibility of practical application of the dye-sensitized solar cell.