Synthesis of Ultrafine Fe-W-Al-Ti-Ni-C-B Powders by Mechanical Alloying

The goal of the presented research was syntheses of the ultrafine and nanopowder blends by Mechanical Alloying from Fe-W-Al-Ti-Ni-B-C compositions for further application as a precursor for fabrication bulk High-Entropy Alloy (HEA) by explosive compaction technology. The presented paper describes the preliminary investigations of mechanical alloying of Fe-W-Al-Ti-Ni-B-C powders. Laboratory vibrating sieve equipment was used for sorting the initial powders for the reduction of particle size. For the experiments were used powders of Fe-W-Al-Ti-Ni-B-C system consisting of five major metallic and two minor non-metallic B and C elements were used for mechanical alloying. The crystalline coarse Aluminum, Titanium, Carbon and Nickel, fine-grained iron and tungsten and amorphous Boron powders were used as initial components. The Fe, W, Al, Ti and Ni powders were preliminary checked by "Explorer 5000 XRF" by Skyray instrument and verified. Based on the literature review, theoretical investigation and phase diagrams for mechanical alloying were selected two compositions with the following molar ratio: Fe₂₀W₁₅Al₁₅Ti₂₀Ni₂₀B₅C₅; Fe₂₅W₂₅Al₁₀Ti₁₅Ni₁₅B₅C₅; The mechanical alloying was realized on the high energy ball mill with zirconium oxide jars and balls. The ball to powder mass ratio was 10:1, the rotation speed was 500rpm. The process was carried out in dry conditions. The time of mechanical alloying was 5h, 10h and 14 h. The powders were prepared for preliminary analyses and assessment of particle size. The SEM and optical microscopy results of mechanical alloying are presented in the paper.