Processing iron aluminides by heavy deformation for improved room temperature strength-ductility and for high temperature creep strength

ABSTRACTIron aluminides show many interesting properties, but still show relatively poor ductility at room temperature and only moderate creep resistance at temperatures above about 600ºC. Processes of severe plastic deformation have been investigated for a wide range of ductile alloys over the past decade, but have hardly been considered for intermetallics. This presentation discusses two studies aimed at refining microstructure by the use of severe plastic deformation of iron aluminides. The first considers processing Fe3Al by heavy cold rolling, followed by annealing for recovery or recrystallization, with an objective of refining grain size to improve strength at the same time as ductility. The high strength and poor ductility of the work hardened material leads to a danger of cracking during rolling, which is a problem for manufacturing large quantities of healthy material. Suitable rolling and recovery treatments can, nevertheless, lead to strong materials with some plastic ductility. A different technique of multidirectional, high-strain and high-temperature forging applied to a boride-containing Fe3Al alloy produces a material with large grain size and refined dispersion of boride particles. These particles lead to a considerable increase in creep strength under conditions of moderate stresses at temperatures around 700ºC. This high-strain forging technique can be seen as an intermediate processing method between conventional wrought metallurgy and mechanical-alloying powder metallurgy. This technique offers the possibility to improve high temperature behaviour of such intermetallics containing second-phase dispersions, and can be scaled to produce large quantities of high-quality material.