Abstract
A potential method to produce Ni 3 Al+0.1B PM products of large dimension and as sheets, rods, tubes or other shapes with simple laboratory facilities is presented. The method includes multi-stage sintering and interstage cold deformation to collapse and to eliminate the sintering pores; most important of all, a thermally absorbing material must keep contact with the powder compacts during the preliminary reactive sintering stage to decrease the maximum temperature of the specimen and to develop the Ni 2 Al 3 phase. The found Ni 2 Al 3 regions with some special characteristics can be used to sustain the deformation of cold rolling more than 30% without failure. The monolithic Ni 76 Al 24 B 0.1 phase is obtained after the second stage of sintering at 1200°C for 4h. At meantime, common reactive sintered specimens without a thermally absorbing material contacting were also studied and compared side by side.