Fabrication and characterization of reactive Ni–Ti–C powder by mechanical alloying

•Direct and indirect mechanical alloying was applied to fabricate a Ni–Ti–C metastable powder.•By each different mechanical alloying route suitable milling speed should be chosen.•The metastable mechanically alloyed powder could undergo a reaction to synthesize TiC at high temperatures.

Reactive powder was prepared by mechanical alloying of a mixture of Ni, Ti and C elemental powders using a high energy planetary ball mill. Two MA methods were investigated and the effect of these routes together with the milling intensity was studies. Powders were characterized using X-ray diffractometery (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal stability of reactive powders was investigated by differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). Results show that, by the selection of appropriate conditions, a metastable Ni–Ti–C powder with the nominal composition Ni–32 wt.%Ti–8 wt.%C could be obtained. This metastable powder was capable of in situ synthesis of Ni–TiC composite during exposure to high temperatures and can be applied in reactive sintering methods.