Abstract

Mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and ball-milled (Ni+Al) powder mixture were sintered by spark-plasma sintering(SPS) process. Mechanical alloying was performed in a horizontal attritor for 20 h with rotation speed of 600 rpm. (Ni+Al) powder mixtures were prepared by ball milling for 1 and 10 h with 120 rpm. Both powders were sintered at 1150°C for 5 min under 10-3 torr vacuum with 50 MPa die pressure in a SPS facility. Sintered densities of 97% and 99% were obtained from mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder and (Ni+Al) powder mixture, respectively. The sintered compact of (Ni+Al) powder mixture showed large grain size by a very rapid grain growth, while the grain size of mechanically-alloyed NiAl powder compact after sintering was extremely fine(80 nm). The difference in densification behavior of both powders were discussed.