FeAl powder fabrication by rapid solidification and water vapour-based process

A fabrication process for FeAl intermetallic compound powders has been developed in the present work. The fabrication process is based on a technique employed to study the environmental embrittlement of AlFe intermetallic systems. In the present process, thin metallic ribbons were produced by rapid solidification, placed in a steel mesh inside a reactor for subsequent exposure to water vapour for their final transformation into metallic powders. The process also showed the possibility to add alloying elements in small quantities (1-4 at.-%) in order to improve FeAl ductility. The results showed that the present process has advantages in cost for industrial applications since the raw material low cost and the use of water vapour instead of employing high cost equipment. Additionally, the technique can fix some important problems in the process fabrication, which are generally presented in other powders processing techniques.