New Gas Atomizing Technique for Nb3Al Intermetallic Alloy
AbstractPlasma-Melt-Gas-Atomizing (PMGA) technique has been developed to produce rapidly solidified powders of intermetallic alloys for ultra-high temperature structural applications. Using this technique, rapidly solidified Nb3Al powders have been produced. These powders consist mainly of supersaturated solid solution of Al in Nb (A2), while the conventional cast structure consists of ordered A 15, and may be a good source for most powder metallurgical applications. Furthermore, a unique technique to control the powder size distribution is currently under development. In-situ measurement method of the atomized powder size distribution has been examined by using phase Doppler particle analyzer to control final powder size distribution by the feedback from the in-situ measurement data to the control system of the Plasma-Melt-Gas-Atomizer.