Aluminium alloys with transition metals prepared by powder metallurgy

Powder metallurgy represented by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering was used for preparation of the AlFe16 and the AlSi20Fe16 alloys. Microstructure of the both alloys consisted of very fine intermetallic phases homogenously dispersed in the matrix of a-Al solid solution. Fine nature of microstructure led to promising results of compressive stress-strain tests performed at laboratory and elevated temperature of 400 degrees C. The compressive strengths of the AlSi20Fe16 and the AlFe16 alloys at laboratory temperature were 780 MPa and 508 MPa, respectively. Elevated temperature resulted in drop of the compressive strengths to 480 MPa and 211 MPa, respectively. However, the results of investigated alloys outperformed the thermally stable AlSi12Cu1Mg1Ni1 (wt. %) used as reference material.