Effect of heat treatment on Fe-B-Si-Nb alloy powder prepared by mechanical alloying

Abstract

The effect of heat treatment on crystallization behavior of Fe 73.5 B 15 Si 10 Nb 1.5 alloy powder prepared by mechanical alloying was studied. The powder samples were prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) and for different milling times (1, 5, 25, 70 and 100 hours). Crystalline powders of iron, boron, silicon and niobium were sealed with tungsten carbide balls in a cylindrical vial under nitrogen atmosphere. The ball-to-powder weight ratio was 20 to 1. A Fritsch Pulverizette 5 planetary ball mill was used for MA the powders at room temperature and at 250 rpm. To study the microstructural evolution, a small amount of powder was collected after different milling times and examined by X-ray diffraction, using CuK radiation ( = 0.15418 nm). The crystallization behavior was studied by differential thermal analysis, from 25 up to 1000 °C at a heating rate of 25 °C min -1 .