Fabrication of FINEMET bulk alloy from amorphous powders by spark plasma sintering

• Finemet bulk soft magnetic alloy was produced by Spark Plasma Sintering technique.
• Bulk sample with ~ 97% relative density was fabricated from amorphous powders.
• Viscous flow was distinguished as the main mechanism of consolidation.
• 84 wt.% Fe(Si) with grain size of 9 nm formed in the amorphous matrix during SPS
• Magnetization and coercivity of bulk Finemet were measured 122.29 emu/g & 123 A/m.

Finemet bulk soft magnetic alloy was fabricated by spark plasma sintering of the milled ribbons. The amorphous melt-spun ribbons were milled for 36 min by high energy vibrational mill and then sieved to separate particles smaller than 125 μm. The size distribution of particles was determined by a laser diffraction particle size analyzer. Spark plasma sintering was carried out at super-cooled liquid region for short times of 7 and 21 min. The structure of bulk samples was characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The magnetization and coercivity of samples were measured using SQUID magnetometry. The results indicated that during sintering the Fe(Si) phase with grain size of 9 nm forms in the amorphous matrix. The amount of Fe(Si) phase was calculated as 84 wt.% in the sample consolidated from fully amorphous powder for 7 min. The magnetization and coercivity of this sample was measured as 122.29 emu g− 1 and 123 Am− 1, respectively. The relative density of consolidated samples for 7 and 21 min was reached to 96 and ~ 97% of theoretical density, respectively. Recording the punch displacement with respect to the time showed that the particles rearrangement and viscous flow with activation energy of 23.4 kJ mol− 1 were the main mechanisms of densification at the first and second stages of densification, respectively.

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