Friction Consolidation of MA956 powder

The applicability of Friction Consolidation (FC) to process an oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steel was studied to tackle the downsides of the conventional processing route (high complexity, extremely high raw material final cost). In this work, MA956 ODS powders have been consolidated through the FC process and small compacts of low porosity have been achieved with the desired oxide dispersion. The friction-consolidated sample shows a range of grain sizes when measuring at different locations within the cross section of the sample, and the values were all finer than those of a conventionally-processed sample. With regard to shape, grains in the friction-consolidated sample show an equiaxed cross section. Three particle families were observed: Y–Al–O, Al–O and Ti(C, N). The Y–Al–O and the Al–O were observed in both the conventionally- and the friction-consolidated sample. This result points out the ability to achieve the precipitation of the Y–Al–O by FC. The Ti(C, N) particles were only observed in the conventionally processed sample. The transmission electron microscopy images showed regions with smaller particles on the friction-consolidated sample. However, due to the extremely localized nature of the measurement, more data should be generated and analyzed to make this observation more statistically reliable.