Preparation of Fe-Al-Si Alloys by Advanced Powder Metallurgy Techniques

Abstract

In this paper, recent research focused on the high-temperature intermetallics based on Fe-Al-Si is summarized. These materials were derived in 2006 from Fe-Al materials which had been tested already since 1894. Silicon was found to improve the oxidation behaviour, hardness and wear resistance. In this work, the innovative production route including ultra-high energy mechanical alloying and compactization by Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is compared with previously tested reactive sintering route. It has been shown that the manufacturing process has no effect on the phase composition. On the other hand, the microstructure of the material prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering is significantly finer. Therefore, it represents a key to better mechanical properties and, due to lower porosity, also to minimized high-temperature oxidation rate.