Mechanical Alloying of Fe-Al-Si Intermetallic Compounds Using Pure and Pre-Alloyed Powders

Abstract

In this paper, ternary FeAl20Si20 (wt.%) intermetallic alloy was prepared by mechanical alloying from different feedstock materials. Various combinations of elemental as well as pre-alloyed feedstock powders were milled in hard-soft, soft-hard and hard-hard initial mixing conditions with the aim to optimize the mechanical alloying process especially speed-up the processing time. The microstructure, phase composition and mechanical properties after different time of mechanical alloying were characterized. The effect of using the pre-alloyed powders on kinetics of mechanical alloying and final phase composition is compared with the results obtained on batches prepared from elemental powders. Using of appropriate pre-alloyed powders can slightly speed-up mechanical alloying process, nevertheless it has no significant effect on final microstructure, phase composition and mechanical properties.