SHS-produced Fe-(TiMo)C master alloy for reinforcement of manganese steel

Some steels and alloys, such as the austenite of Hadfield-type manganese steels, are very ductile, tough, and deformable, so that the industrial parts made of these materials often suffer marked geometric deformations during their service life. The problem can be resolved by reinforcing the austenitic matrix with hard, microscopically dispersed ceramic particles such as TiC. Titanium monocarbide, TiC, very hard and stable at room/high temperatures, can be readily fabricated by SHS from elementary Ti-C powders as raw materials. However, these ceramic products are prone to coalescence and have poor wettability in a molten bath, so that the product yield and subsequent property improvement are very low. These drawbacks have been overcome by synthesizing the Fe-(TiMo)C master alloy, that is, (TiMo)C complex carbide particles embedded into a metallic (Fe) matrix, which will significantly improve the mechanical properties of final product. Another goal of this work is substituting expensive raw materials (titanium, molybdenum, and iron powders) by low-cost FeTi and FeMo alloys. The results showed that manganese steels can be successfully reinforced with particles of the SHS-produced master alloy. It has been proved that the use of FeTi and FeMo for the synthesis of master alloy not only satisfies all technical requirements but also significantly reduces the production cost, thus satisfying rigorous economical needs.