Effect of Ce Content on Properties of Al-Ce-Based Composites by Powder-in-Tube Method

Al-Ce based alloys have gained recent interest and have proven to have excellent strength without heat treatment and high thermal stability. Challenges with the production of Al-Ce samples from elemental powders arise due to the elemental material before alloying being susceptible to rapid oxidation. The methodology for making superconductive wire, powder-in-tube, was used as a consolidate Al and Ce elemental powder, and Al-8 wt % Ce-10 wt % Mg composite powder into bulk nanostructured material. Powder samples are fabricated in an inert controlled atmosphere, then sealed in a tube to avoid oxidation of powders. Therefore, most of the powder is used without much loss. We used 316 stainless-steel tubes as a sheathing material. For Al-xCe wt % (x = 8 to 14) samples of elemental powder, liquid phase sintering was used and for Al-Ce-Mg powder solid-state sintering. Characterization of the bulk consolidated material after sintering, and before and after heat treatment, was made using optical and Scanning Electron Microscope imaging, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, Microhardness and Rockwell Hardness test. We demonstrated that microstructure stability in Al-Ce-based specimens can be retained after thermomechanical processing. Densification was achieved and oxidation of powder was avoided in most samples. In addition, we found that Fe and Ni in the sheathing material react with Al in the process, and Ce concentration modifies the reactivity the sheath.

Fabricating Homogeneous FeCoCrNi High-Entropy Alloys via SLM In Situ Alloying

Selective laser melting (SLM) in situ alloying is an effective way to design and fabricate novel materials in which the elemental powder is adopted as the raw material and micro-areas of elemental powder blend are alloyed synchronously in the forming process of selective laser melting (SLM). The pre-alloying process of preparation of raw material powder can be left out, and a batch of bulk samples can be prepared via the technology combined with quantitative powder mixing and feeding. The technique can be applied to high-throughput sample preparation to efficiently obtain a microstructure and performance data for material design. In the present work, bulk equiatomic FeCoCrNi high-entropy alloys with different processing parameters were fabricated via laser in situ alloying. Finite element simulation and CALPHAD calculation were used to determine the appropriate SLM and post-heating parameters. SEM (scanning electron microscope), EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction), and mechanical testing were used to characterize the composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties of as-printed and post-heat-treated samples. The experimental results show that the composition deviation of laser in situ alloying samples could be controlled within 20 wt %. The crystal structure of as-printed samples is a single-phase face-centered cubic (FCC), which is the same as those prepared by the traditional method. The mechanical properties of the samples prepared by laser in situ alloying with elemental powder blend are comparable to those prepared by pre-alloying powder and much higher than those prepared by the traditional method (arc melting). As-printed samples can get a homogeneous microstructure under the optimal laser in situ alloying process combined with post-heat treatment at 1200 °C for 20 h.