Strengthening of a high strength Fe85Ni15 alloy by tempering treatment

A high-strength Fe85Ni15 alloy with lath martensitic structure was obtained by the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis technique. After tempering at 500 °C for 2 h, the hardness increased from 3.8 to 5.1 GPa, and the compression yield strength increased from about 1100 to 1500 MPa without much sacrifice of ductility. The strengthening effect might be attributed to the evolution of lath martensitic morphology and the reverse martensitic transformation.