Consolidation and DC magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Supermalloy/iron composite cores prepared by spark plasma sintering

Abstract

The spark plasma sintering technique is used to prepare composite compacts starting from nanocrystalline Supermalloy and iron powder. The sintered compacts are investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis, electrical resistivity and DC magnetic measurements. It is found that iron addition leads to an enhanced sintering process, the relative density of the compacts increases upon increasing iron content. The mean crystallite size of Supermalloy increases from 19 to 27±2nm with increasing the iron content from 0% to 50wt% (for identical sintering conditions). The interface created during the sintering process between iron and Supermalloy particles has a wide range of chemical composition including that corresponding to Rhometal like alloys. This leads to an increase of the electrical resistivity and coercivity of the compacts. The saturation induction and maximum relative permeability increase by 58% and 143% respectively, when the iron content increases up to 50wt%.