Towards Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Metallic Powder Production

Abstract

Intermetallic Fe-Al compounds have become very interesting materials due to their properties, such as good corrosion resistance, high-temperature resistance, high resistance/weight ratios, creep resistance, good wear resistance, and low cost, including some applications where they could replace stainless steels. However, their low ductility at room temperature has limited their use. One of the solutions is to generate powders of these intermetallics and press them in the wished form. Current production methods of this type of powders are very high energy-consuming, polluting, and harmful for handling for human beings. Because of the environmental situation in our planet, it is necessary to develop more environmentally friendly processes, which have lower energy requirements. Therefore, a comparison of a novel water vapor-based FeAl powder manufacture process with Mechanical Alloying (MA), one of the most commonly used processes to produce this type of powder is made in this work. This comparison aims to focus on the advantages of the novel process concerning MA, the last one, considering environmental as well as energy criteria.