The standard powder metallurgy (PM) route for the fabrication of oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) steels involves gas atomization to produce a prealloyed powder, mechanical alloying (MA) with fine oxide powders, consolidation, and finally thermal/thermomechanical treatment (TMT). It is well established that ODS steels with superior property combinations, for example, creep and tensile strength, can be produced by this PM/MA route. However, the fabrication process is complex and expensive, and the fitness for scaling up to the industrial scale is limited. At the laboratory scale, production of small amounts of well-controlled model systems continues to be desirable for specific purposes, such as modeling-oriented experiments. Thus, from the laboratory to industrial application, there is growing interest in complementary or alternative fabrication routes for ODS steels and related model systems, which offer a different balance of cost, convenience, properties, and scalability

h i g h l i g h t sNanostructured ODS steels were successfully produced by SPS. Presence of Y 2 Ti 2 O 7 nanoclusters was confirmed by synchrotron XRD and microscopy. The chemistry of nanoclusters tested by ATP indicated they are Y-Ti-O oxides. a b s t r a c tFerritic steels strengthened with Ti-Y-O nanoclusters are leading candidates for fission and fusion reactor components. A Fe-14Cr-0.4Ti + 0.25Y 2 O 3 (14YT) alloy was fabricated by mechanical alloying and subsequently consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The densification of the 14YT alloys significantly improved with an increase in the sintering temperature. Scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction revealed that 14YT SPS-sintered at 1150°C under 50 MPa for 5 min had a high density (99.6%), a random grain orientation and a bimodal grain size distribution (<500 nm and 1-20 lm). Synchrotron X-ray diffraction patterns showed bcc ferrite, Y 2 Ti 2 O 7 , FeO, and chromium carbides, while transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography showed uniformly dispersed Y 2 Ti 2 O 7 nanoclusters of <5 nm diameter and number density of 1.04 Â 10 23 m À3 . Due to the very much shorter consolidation times and lower pressures used in SPS compared with the more usual hot isostatic pressing routes, SPS is shown to be a cost-effective technique for oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy manufacturing with microstructural features consistent with the best-performing ODS alloys.

Superconducting NbTi alloys have been successfully fabricated by a simple powder processing route involving ball-milling, pressing and annealing. The microstructure and superconducting properties of the NbTi alloys after each processing step have been characterized and compared to the microstructure and performance of NbTi wire manufactured by a conventional thermomechanical process. At the early stages of milling, a lamellar structure of pure Nb and Ti regions is formed, which is gradually refined by further milling leading to the introduction of a high density of microstructural defects. After 20 hrs milling, diffusion of Ti into the Nb generates a matrix of -Nb-50wt%Ti alloy, with a small grain size (50 nm) and high strain (1.8%), containing an even distribution of thin Ti flakes (10-40 nm). In some regions, these Ti flakes contain a supersaturation of Nb as a result of the energetic ball-milling process. The Tc (8.1 K) and Bc2 (9.8 T at 4.2 K) values of this as-milled material are slightly lower than those reported for Nb-47wt%Ti due to the impurity content and lattice disorder. Sintering at 400 ᵒC leads to well consolidated, high density bulk samples, but annealing at temperatures above 600 ᵒC decreases Jc values due to excessive grain growth and strain release. Annealing at lower temperatures results in higher Jc values, a shift of the pinning force density peak towards higher fields and the presence of thermodynamically stable α-Ti precipitates which are effective pinning sites leading to critical current density values comparable with those of commercial NbTi wires.

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Fe-14Cr pre-alloyed powder and pure Hf powder were mechanically alloyed to produce powder with nominal composition Fe-14Cr-0.22Hf (wt. %) that was consolidated by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique in order to investigate the ability of Hf to produce a nanometric dispersion of oxide particles in a ferritic matrix. Comprehensive microstructural and mechanical characterisation of the as-milled powder and the consolidated material was performed using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, atom probe tomography and indentation techniques. It was shown that Hf additions can effectively produce, by internal oxidation, a fine scale dispersion of Hf-O nanoparticles in the consolidated material. A uniform grain structure was produced in the alloy. Although the nanoparticle dispersion was not homogeneous at the finest scale, the resulting dispersion strengthening contributed *Manuscript Click here to view linked References 2 significantly to the hardness. According to these results, internal oxidation of reactive elements rather than direct addition of oxides may offer additional opportunities in the design and development of oxide dispersion strengthened steels.