Hardness behavior of the partially crystallized amorphous Al86Ni9Mm5 alloys

Crystallization behavior and its contribution to hardness of melt-spun amorphous Al-Ni-Mm alloy ribbon was investigated as a function of annealing temperature and time. The as spun ribbon initially consisted of fully amorphous, but formed a crystalline structure of alpha-Al, Al3Ni and Al11La3 + Al11Ce3 by annealing at peak temperatures of 263, 340 and 376degreesC, respectively. The mechanical property estimated from the measured hardness varied with the particle size and volume fraction of the nucleated nano alpha-Al. The maximum hardness of 376 Hv was measured by annealing to 250 degreesC for 10 min, in which size and volume fraction of the nanocystalline nucleated were about 70 nm and 9.2%, respectively. The experimentally obtained hardness data was closely correlated with the calculated value. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.