Tohoku Techno Arch Co., Ltd. List of Products and Services

CNS degenerative disorders, including AD and PD, are increasingly believed to be caused due to mitochondrial disability leading to neuronal death. This inventor recently identified a novel intracellular regulatory factor XXX in the CNS neurons that contributes to mitochondrial homeostasis, and the inventor further developed a method for screening beneficial ability of chemicals to enhance mitochondrial function due to elevation of the XXX level.

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Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are used in many fields because of its light weight, high strength and corrosion resistance. However, CFRP is known to have low electrical conductivity. So when it is used in aircraft fuselage as example, there is a risk of damage due to lightning strike. Therefore, increase conductivity by forming a metallic film on the CFRP surface (metallization) is expected as a method to solve this issue.　 　The cold spray method, which can be applied at low temperature with only little damage to CFRP, is attracting attention as a metallization method. Preliminary study has examined a method of forming metallic coating consisting of tin [1][2]. However, tin/CFRP interface has low adhesion strength. The methods to improve adhesion strength have been developed, such as the use of additive or surface treatment of CFRP, but they are not industrially ideal due to cost. 　This invention is about metal-coated CFRP with improved adhesion strength by using a simple method that does not require pre-treatment or post-treatment, and its manufacturing method.

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Calcium phosphate, which has long been used as a vector to transfer genes into cells, is easy to prepare and has a good shelf life, but has a problem of low gene transfer efficiency. On the other hand, it has recently been reported that gene transfer efficiency is improved by modifying oligoarginine in the vector. In the gene transfer using calcium phosphate vector modified with oligoarginine, we found that the gene transfer efficiency was improved by pre-treating target cells with a potassium-sparing diuretic. ・The present invention is cheaper and simpler than gene transfer methods such as lipofection, electroporation, microinjection, and viral vectors. ・It is less cytotoxic than non-viral gene transfer agents. ・Treatment of target cells with potassium-sparing diuretics improved gene transfer efficiency up to 10 fold.

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Plasma actuator is an element that generates airflow using the electric current force generated by the electrical discharge. It is attracting attention as the next generation of airflow control device because it can actively control the flow with a simple configuration that does not use moving parts.　 　However, the conventional plasma actuator needs a large quantity of high-voltage power supply because it requires a drive voltage of over 10000V. The development of multi-electrode plasma actuator with multiple elements lined up for low-voltage drive has been done, but it has not yet been put to a real practical use due to a number of issues, such as arc discharge between multiple electrodes and interference between electrodes that causes electric current force in the opposite direction of the main flow, which reduces performance. 　This invention is about a multi-electrode plasma actuator that can prevent arc discharge between electrodes and that do not generate backflow. Unlike conventional method, it is possible to reduce the driving voltage of the plasma actuator to a few hundred volts in principle because the performance is improved by increasing the number of electrodes.

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Practical titanium dioxide photocatalysts often use powder as a raw material, and immobilization and adhesion to substrates have been problems for industrial use. Moreover, although titanium dioxide is active in ultraviolet light, its lack of activity in natural light such as sunlight has been a long-standing 　The present invention relates to a technique for producing a rutile-type titanium dioxide thin film using an anodization method, which enables the creation of a thin film with high adhesion ability that combines photocatalytic performance and superhydrophilicity at a relatively low cost (right table). The thin film exhibits photocatalytic activity not only in ultraviolet light but also in visible light (Figure 1). In addition, water droplets are completely wetted and spread on the surface of the thin film after 0.005 seconds under visible light as well as ultraviolet irradiation, confirming the high speed wettability equivalent to that of "ink jet printer paper with excellent permeability" (Figure 2).

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Conventional method of producing hydrogen gas from organic matters such as biomass or plastics, is composed of mixing calcium hydroxide and nickel hydroxide, applying mechanochemical processing (grinding), and then heating. However, since the pulverization process requires energy and equipment, technology development with further cost reduction was expected.　 　This invention is about a method of producing hydrogen gas from organic materials such as biomass and plastics at low cost without requiring a grinding process. 　Organic materials such as biomass and plastics are pyrolyzed in a lumpy state to generate pyrolysis gas, and then this gas is heated with an aqueous solution containing nickel to generate hydrogen gas. In addition, the nickel added during heating can be recovered and reused.

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When multiple vision sensors are used to acquire images of a scene from multiple points of view to achieve, for example, cooperative tracking, wide area monitoring or 3D motion measurement, the image sequences given by the sensors should be synchronized. 　Many of industrial vision sensors are equipped with dedicated electrical inputs/outputs, or wireless network for synchronization trigger signals. But the problem of the former is physical limitation and the latter is network delay is critical for high speed use cases. 　In this invention, Incident light to a vision sensor from an intensity-modulated illumination source serves as the reference signal for synchronization. It enables concise set up compare to existing technologies.

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In order to prevent hydrogen embrittlement in which hydrogen penetrates into a material and degrades its mechanical property such as strength, it is effective to visualize distribution of hydrogen penetrated into the material. Silver decoration method and hydrogen microprint technique are known as conventional hydrogen observation methods, but these methods are not able to detect the time variation of the hydrogen distribution in real-time. In the past, Tohoku University made the real-time detection possible by using metallic oxide, but the sensitivity was low and could not detect the small amount of hydrogen atoms that migrate into the material due to corrosion. 　This system is able to detect the hydrogen in real time with high sensitivity and high spatial resolution in an actual environment. This technology is effective for example to visually judge hydrogen permeation into plant equipment.

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Dielectrics are used in various electronic devices. Due to the miniaturization of electronic devic　Dielectric materials are used in various electronic devices. Due to the recent miniaturization of electronic devices, dielectric materials used in electronic devices tend to become smaller. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a technology that can accurately measure the permittivity of a fine capacitor structure. In addition, even in cases where the capacitor structure is not fine, it may be difficult to determine the permittivity through impedance measurement of a capacitor structure composed of a conventional electrode pair (e.g., a diameter of 100 μm or more) due to the existence of a region of locally high conductivity, called a leak path, in some dielectrics. 　As one method to enable measurement of the permittivity even for dielectrics having such a leak path, it may be considered that the electrode size is extremely small (For example, 1 μm or less) and capacitance measurement is performed while avoiding the existence of the leak path. However, when the capacitor structure becomes small, the influence of parasitic capacitance becomes relatively large, and it becomes difficult to accurately measure the capacitance of the dielectric, so that it becomes difficult to accurately measure the permittivity. The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and relates to a method for measuring the permittivity which can accurately measure the permittivity of a small region.

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As represented by smartphone, PC, etc., the number of devices equipped with lithium-ion battery is increasing day by day. This is supported by the battery high capacity, but the use of metallic lithium is required to have even higher capacity, so research & development are underway. Up to now, one of the factors that prevented the practical use of metallic lithium was the formation of dendrite by metallic lithium due to the diffusion control during charge/discharge, which led to a decrease in battery performance. 　This invention is about an electrolyte that solves the above issues. It has demonstrated that the smooth surface is maintained even after many charge/discharge cycles by controlling the rate-determining process. The same effect has been confirmed for sodium-ion battery, so the applicability of this invention is not limited to lithium-ion battery.

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Conventional neutron beam detector has several issues such as the detection unit size is large, the power source is necessary, the device is complicated so the design becomes costly, the noise is included in the signal current, an expensive gas is required, and lastly the detector is expensive due to the design & manufacturing cost. 　This invention is about a low cost high accurate compact neutron beam detector that doesn’t require power source, and has a simple structure by using a commercially available ■■. Since the highly radiation-resistant semiconductor has been used as an element, it is expected to be used in high neutron flux environment such as neutron flux measurement, for example the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) which is a next generation cancer treatment.

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Thermoelectric (TE) materials, which have the ability to convert heat into electricity, play a significant role in the utilization and management of thermal energy. Mg2Sn is a potential thermoelectric (TE) material that exhibits environmental compatibility since it is not-toxic and .not contains rare materials. However, as existing Mg2Sn materials have low electric conductivity and high thermal conductivity, it results in low zT value. 　This invention is related to Mg2Sn material contains Sb and B as doping materials, and Mg vacancies with high Power Factor and low thermal conductivity, which contribute to improve zT value. zT > 0.8 are achieved by our materials mentioned above.

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Time-Series data such as motion data has several types of noise in general. 　Various nonlinear filters have been proposed in image processing for noise reduction. However, still it is difficult to balance both high precise noise reduction and not disrupting data portion which is important to keep original data structure. 　This invention is a kind of non-linear special filtering, named Structure-aware Temporal Bilateral Filter(SATBF). SATBF enables highly precise noise reduction without disrupting essential structure of the original data.

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Magnesium battery has being researched and developed as a promising candidate for post lithium ion battery due to its abundant reserve and high capacity per volume. Up to now, a material with chevrel structure was almost the only known positive electrode material for practical magnesium battery. However, the electromotive force is about 1 V which is low, and a material that can generate high electromotive force has been searched. 　This invention is about a material based on a spinel structure that solves above issues. By employing a defective spinel type oxide that contains defect in the cation site, this invention has succeeded to suppress the crystal structure change due to insertion and desorption of magnesium. As a result, it offers a positive electrode material with higher working potential and improved cycle characteristic than conventional material.

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Recently, projectors are widely used to various applications such as projection mapping, exhibition, games etc. 　However, still physical setup of projectors and screens are one major factor which limits projector application. 　This invention enables projected contents to precisely stick on screen or object even if screen and/or projector itself is moving in high speed. 　This invention is expected to be adopted to various applications with projectors.

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Magnesium battery has being researched and developed as a promising candidate for post lithium ion battery due to its abundant reserve and high capacity per volume. Up to now, a material with chevrel structure was almost the only known positive electrode material for practical magnesium battery. However, the electromotive force is about 1 V which is low, and a material that can generate high electromotive force has been searched. 　This invention is about a sulfur-based positive electrode material made by electrochemical desorption from sulfide, which can solve above issues. Based on the invention concept, it is able to fabricate a "porous frame + active substance" composite material, and to provide a cathode material with a higher working potential and improved cycle characteristic than conventional material.

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For Japan, where the natural resources are poor, the technology to collect and reuse rare metal is extremely important. In particular, with the increasing demand for electric vehicle, the collection of rare metal from the cathode material of lithium-ion battery has become a major industrial issue. Currently, the collection is done by extracting each metal species with various solvents. However, this method requires the waste liquid treatment of various acid solutions generated during the collecting process. 　This invention is about a rare metal collecting method using a single organic solvent. The most important feature of this rare metal collecting method is that the waste liquid treatment issue does not occur since it does not generate any acid solutions, so it realizes a rare metal collecting process with low environmental load. The right figure shows an example of the collecting device of this invention. The acetylacetone vapor reacts with waste containing rare metal to become an organometallic gas. The organometallic gas enters into the separator then it is collected by metal species using the difference in boiling point. The recovered organic metal is recycled in the form of metal or metal compound through reactions such as hydrogen reduction, hydrolysis and carbonation. In the mentioned reaction, acetylacetone is necessarily obtained after the reaction, allowing the solvent to recycle. 　Currently, 80% of the metal can be collected between the separator and the collector.

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This technology realizes a wide dynamic range CMOS image sensor by employing Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor (LOFIC) in a pixel. The LOFIC technology can solve the tradeoff between high sensitivity and high saturation signal. This technology has been ready to the market.

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Transition metal dichalcogenide (hereinafter “TMD”) is an atomic material layer with thickness of an atom, which has a bandgap in the visible range and behaves as a semiconductor. The conventional synthesis method is the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) where TMD is synthesized at random position on the circuit board. The position control of the synthesis is essential in order to apply TMD on different devices but the conventional synthesis method doesn’t allow that. The synthesis method with controlled position is also proposed but a polycrystalline TMD is synthesized and it is not convenient to apply to different devices. 　This invention solves above issues and can provide a synthesis method of monocrystalline TMD or heterojunction TMD by controlling its position using micro dots as a growing core while limiting the size dispersion.

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Precious metals are used as catalysts in various reaction systems, but their high price and scarcity have reduced their usage. Therefore, catalysts loaded with precious metals are generally prepared by dispersing and carrying noble metal particles in a nanoparticulate state on a support such as an oxide to maximize the surface area per amount of precious metal used. Conventional methods for producing noble metal catalysts have a problem that the dispersion of noble metal particles is poor and the particle size is uneven because the noble metal particles agglomerate during the heating process during metallization. Even if a method for producing a metal catalyst that can obtain highly dispersed particles is used, there is also a problem that the support is limited.　 　The present invention has made it possible to provide a method for producing a metal catalyst that can uniformly and highly disperse metal particles on various supports.

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Filamentous fungi have an advantage to produce a wide variety of useful substances in industry. However, it is well-known that hyphal aggregation during the liquid culture often prevents fungi to grow with high density, resulting in low productivity of useful substances. 　This invention discloses a mutant strain of a filamentous fungi, in which α-1,3-glucan synthase (AGS) gene is deficient, for high productivity of substances. 　The α-1,3-glucan in the cell wall in AGS deficient mutant (AGΔ) is significantly reduced. The AGΔ cells are dispersed well in a liquid medium and cultured with higher density compared with that of wild type. Such phenotype of AGΔ results in an increasing productivity of useful substances per unit.

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Fuel cells are attracting attention as an environmentally friendly energy, and various forms are being researched and developed. Solid oxide fuel cells are focused from the energy efficiency perspective. 　For a solid oxide fuel cell containing multi-cells, fuel and air are supplied separately from the same direction to the anode and cathode of each cell, which requires a fuel and an air supply unit, respectively. In addition, since the solid oxide fuel cells have a structure in which a solid electrolyte is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode, the fuel and air supply system becomes complicated in order to supply them separately to the anode and cathode which are close to each other. This is the reason why the full cell miniaturization was difficult. 　This invention is based on the structure of the electrode layer. By separating the fuel and air input & output respectively, a smooth flow can be achieved and the power generation efficiency can be improved.

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Various 3D imaging methods including X-ray CT, ultrasonography,and confocal laser scanning microscopy are employed in industrial applications, depending on its usage. However, X-ray CT requires the rotation of a light source or the irradiation area to acquire 3D images, which makes rapid imaging difficult. Ultrasonographyenables 3D measurement using 2D array elements but suffers from limited spatial resolution. In addition, confocal laser scanning microscopy requires the sequential acquisition of 2D images while moving the observation plane, which makes 3D observation at video rate impossible. 　In recent years, 3D cameras and OCT are known as emerging 3D image acquisition techniques. However, the camera-based technique exploiting patterned- or line-illuminations provides limited spatial resolution, and it cannot visualize the internal information of samples. Besides, OCT is, in principle, applicable to reflected light signals only and impossible to measure fluorescence signals.A series of inventions solves the above issues and provides an imaging method with a simple implementation that enables the acquisition of precise 3D images in real-time.

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Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a graphene cylindrical sheet consisting of six-membered ring of carbon. It is known that the CNT axial winding of graphene (chirality) determines the electronic state, such as metallicity, semiconductivity and band gap (BG). 　The production of CNT with high chiral purity requires a complex process that includes the wet process such as separation and impurity removal. 　This invention is about a simple method for synthesizing semiconductor type (BG>1eV) single layer CNT with extremely high chiral purity (over 90%), which does not require a process to increase chiral purity and which has low production cost.

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　The CO2 fixation technologies so far typically employ alkaline earth metals to fix CO2 by converting it into chemically stable carbonate minerals. However, the conventional technologies are difficult to apply on a large scale because of its slow reaction rate, high cost and potential environmental concerns due to the use of a large amount of pH adjusters. 　This invention discloses a novel CO2 fixation process that enables to run under 100°C and ambient pressure without using large amounts of pH adjusters. It can run continuously at low cost by regenerating and recycling of the chelating agent (e.g., GLDA) solution within the process. This invention also enables the production of high-purity carbonates, such as CaCO3, and oxides, such as silica, by using Ca/Mg-containing wastes, including combustion ash, waste concrete, and slag, as Ca/Mg sources. The chemicals obtained in this sustainable CO2 fixation technology, such as CaCO3, are expected to be used in industries such as pigments, rubber, and desiccants.

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Thin-film solar cells using SnS (tin sulfide) offer the following advantages: ・Free of toxic elements such as Cd and Te. ・Composed of abundant and inexpensive elements (Sn and S). ・Efficient light absorption at a thickness of just 2–3 μm (compared to ~500 μm for silicon). ・A conversion efficiency of 25.3% has been reported for homo p-n junctions. However, achieving high-efficiency SnS solar cells with a homo p-n junction requires n-type SnS thin films, which have been technically challenging to fabricate. In this invention, inventor successfully synthesized n-type SnS thin films for the first time using a novel sulfurization technique based on sulfur plasma. This breakthrough is expected to enable the realization of homojunction SnS solar cells in the future.

• Manufacturing Technology

Burkholderia gulmae and B. plantarii are pathogenic bacteria and cause rice seedling rot which is one of the most serious problems in the process of raising seedlings for rice cultivation. The main method for controlling plant diseases is application of chemical pesticides. However, risks for emergence of the drug-resistant bacteria and negative impact of chemicals on the environment should be minimized. The present invention proposes an environmentally friendly method, without chemical pesticides, of plant disease control using novel jumbo phage which is isolated from organically farmed soil.

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PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) particles are industrially important particles used for many purposes. 　They are often used with their surfaces coated with dispersants and dispersed in water. Fluorinated dispersants are used as dispersant, but there is a strong concern about its bioaccumulation and environmental persistence, and it is necessary to find an alternative agent that doesn’t use fluorine. 　This invention is about a non-fluorinated dispersant that can disperse PTFE in water.

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Ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) have attracted attention as an industrially acceptable nanofabrication technology from views of cost and throughput; However, the use of spincoated films of photo-curable resin on substrates causes the problems of burr generation arising from mold edges and unleveled residual layers arising from site-selective differences in pattern densities of mold surfaces. The problems make subsequent lithography processes impossible. This optical nanoimprinting method consists of micro-scale laser-drilled screen printing and nano-scale molding. High-viscosity photo-curable resins with 1-300 Pa･s can be placed by screen printing using a polyimide sheet having through poles which are fabricated by laser drilling using a picosecond pulsed laser. The minimum volume of a printed droplet is 5 fL (10-15L). The resist patterns and resultant silicon patterns with 45-nm-linewidths are fabricated.

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　Conventional Hall sensors (a type of magnetic-field sensors) rely on highly crystalline semiconductors such as GaAs and InSb that show the large ordinary Hall effect. However, the requirements for low carrier density and high mobility impose strong constraints on the fabrication processes and conditions. Also, their strong Tdependent electrical properties must be cancelled out with additional ICs to achieve Hall sensor operation over a wide practical T range. 　This invention describes a ferromagnetic Fe-Sn alloy, which can work as a superior Hall sensor material owing to the large anomalous Hall effect. This novel material offers many technological advantages including cheap and non-toxic ingredients, the roomtemperature growth on various substrates, and high sensitivity and thermal stability.

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As a acoustic speaker, a dynamic speaker using electromagnetic force (electrodynamic speaker) is used in many cases. In the dynamic speaker, as strong force is required, regarding a small speaker such as an earphone, in particular, the inertial force of the diaphragm is increased relatively, causing a problem of increased deviation between the electrical signal and the vibration. 　An electrostatic speaker has been used to solve the foregoing problem. However, in the conventional electrostatic speakers, one or a plurality of holes is required to be formed at each fixed electrode in order to transmit an acoustic wave generated by the vibration of the diaphragm to the outside.This causes a problem that dust, water, moisture, etc. are likely to come in. This invention solves mentioned problems by its new structure.

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Liquid quenching method and atomization method are known as conventional methods of producing amorphous particles. However, the amorphous particle size obtained by these methods is relatively large and it has been difficult to obtain nanometer order amorphous nanoparticles, including amorphous tissue. Although chemical and arc plasma discharge methods are known to produce metal nanoparticles, the application of those methods are not easy due to the formation of secondary particles and segregation. Furthermore, it is also difficult to obtain large quantities of nanoparticles. 　This invention is able to provide amorphous nanoparticles, its production method with excellent dispersibility at relatively low temperatures, and amorphous nanoparticle dispersions. This invention includes the process of obtaining a dispersion with a solid-state metal comprising an alloy and a reducing dispersant, and the process of irradiating the dispersion with ultrasound in order to obtain amorphous nanoparticles containing an amorphous structure from the solid-state metal.

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It happens that some food are mistaken by elders and then drop into their lungs. Some times it leads to serious pneumonia and thus becomes to be problematic for home/facility medical care for elders. 　This invention provides a non-contact quantitative analysis device to evaluate the swallowing function of elders by monitoring the movement of neck surface. Also, the device is useful to evaluate objectively if the food is delicious and if elders can swallow the food smoothly.

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　It has been reported that reduction or deletion of Langerhans β cells (hereafter β cells) in pancreatic islet occurs not only in type 1 diabetes but also in type 2 diabetes. Therefore, regeneration or promotion of β cells has been proposed as a promising treatment for diabetes. Recently, it has been shown that the transplantation of bone marrow cells promotes the proliferation of β cells. However, the mechanism is not clear.　 　The present invention relates to nucleic acid molecules that promote the proliferation of β cells. Said molecules increased insulin secretion and decreased blood glucose levels in animal model (right figure and related literature) in vivo. In combination with drug delivery systems, it is expected to establish a novel treatment for diabetes.

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Currently, molybdenum alloys are formed by extrusion of powder sintered bodies due to their high melting point. Therefore, cutting is required in order to form complex shapes, which increases the manufacturing cost. In addition, if a body is formed by the powder sintering, the strength is decreased.　 　In this invention, light / high strength / high heat resistance molybdenum alloys can be easily fabricated by the melting and casting method, which can be applied for complex shapes. New molybdenum alloys with melting point below 2000℃.

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