Characteristics of Ni- Cr Binary Alloys Produced by Conventional Powder Metallurgy

Abstract

The characteristics of Ni-Cr porous alloys containing 0.5 wt%Cr up to 12 wt%Cr were determined. The alloys were prepared from a mix of Ni-particles with filamentary shape and Cr-particles with irregular shape which then mixed with 0.5 wt% paraffin wax as a binder. The samples were formed by compaction and then sintered at 1200 °C for 1 h. The microstructure of samples was found to consist of a Ni-Cr solid solution matrix with X-ray energy dispersive analysis of Cr% less than 0.33 wt%. The matrix microstructure which composed of equiaxed grains (20-60 μm) surrounded high Cr content islands which also contained γ phase (Ni2.88 Cr1.22). The apparent density of the alloys was found to decrease with Cr content from 8.32 g/cm3 for samples containing 0.5 wt%Cr to 7.26 g/cm3 for samples containing 12 wt%Cr. Therefore, the estimated porosity was found to increase from 6.4% to 16.6% with increasing Cr content from 0.5 wt% to 12 wt%. The microhardness of the samples varied from 153.6 to 284.2 VHN for the equiaxed grains and from 119.6 to 240.6 VHN for the island areas.