Preparation of 50Ni-45Ti-5Zr powders by high-energy ball milling and hot pressing

This study reports on the preparation of the 50Ni-45Ti-5Zr (at.%) alloy by high-energy ball milling and hot pressing. The elemental powder mixture was processed in silicon nitride and hardened steel vials, and samples were collected after different milling times. To recover the previous powders in addition wet milling isopropyl alcohol (for 20 min) was adopted. The mechanically alloyed powders were hot-pressed under vacuum at 900 °C for 1 h using pressure levels close to 200 MPa. The milled powders were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy dispersive spectrometry techniques. It was noted that the ductile starting powders were continuously cold-welded during ball milling. This fact was more pronounced during the processing of 50Ni-45Ti-5Zr powders in hardened steel vial. After milling for 5 h, the results suggested that amorphous and nanocrystalline structures were achieved. The complete consolidation was found after hot pressing of mechanically alloyed 50Ni-45Ti-5Zr powders, and a large amount of the B2-NiTi phase was formed mainly after processing in stainless steel balls and vial.