Metallurgical Preparation of Nb-Al and W-Al Intermetallic Compounds and Characterization of Their Microstructure and Phase Transformations by DTA Technique

The possibilities of metallurgical preparation of 40Nb-60Al and 15W-85Al intermetallic compounds (in at.%) by plasma arc melting (PAM) and vacuum induction melting (VIM) were studied. Both methods allow easy preparation of Nb-Al alloys; however, significant evaporation of Al was observed during the melting, which affected the resulting chemical composition. The preparation of W-Al alloys was more problematic because there was no complete re-melting of W during PAM and VIM. However, the combination of PAM and VIM allowed the preparation of W-Al alloy without any non-melted parts. The microstructure of Nb-Al alloys consisted of Nb2Al and NbAl3 intermetallic phases, and W-Al alloys consisted mainly of needle-like WAl4 intermetallic phase and Al matrix. The effects of melting conditions on chemical composition, homogeneity, and microstructure were determined. Differential thermal analysis was used to determine melting and phase transformation temperatures of the prepared alloys.