Increasing demands on technical components for high-temperature applications (e.g. tur-bine blades) promote new developments not only in the field of alloy design, but also in surface engineering. This paper shows that it is possible to structure the surface of intermetallic titanium aluminides in-situ by locally controlled oxidation of the material due to selective doping with fluorine. The aim is to reproduce a shark-skin pattern (parallel riblets with valleys in between) in order to improve the surface aerodynamics. Riblets with widths in the single digit μm range have been generated. The nucleation process, the aspect ratio and the stability of the generated micro-structures are discussed as a function of the substrate composition and the oxidation conditions.

It is well-known that cadmium and its corrosion product (cadmium oxide) are carcinogenic and toxic. Consequently, efforts to eliminate cadmium from original equipment and repair processes have been on-going. One potential replacement is indium, which is a soft post-transition metal, whose primary use is in the form of indium tin oxide, e.g., in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The semi-conductive properties of indium oxide alloys make it possible to use these for cadmium brush plating replacement in applications where contact resistance and impedance are critical parameters. Critical requirements of an alternative to cadmium brush plating in a corrosive industrial atmosphere are (1) be sacrificial to mild steel and (2) provide good electrical conductivity. Cadmium oxide remains semi-conductive, while most other pure metal oxides are electrical insulators, such as aluminum oxide, nickel oxide, and zinc oxide, and therefore, fail in meeting the requirement for bonding and grounding. Similar to cadmium oxide, indium oxide is semi-conductive, but indium exhibits other properties such as cold welding. This paper discusses indium- electroplating approaches to overcome the insulating limitation of pure metal plating and to replace cadmium brush plating. Test results are given for the brush-plated indium-tin alloy as compared to cadmium brush plating and conclusions on such replacement feasibility are provided.

Square-shaped micropillar of nearly stoichiometric TiAl single crystals with various loading axis orientations were prepared from TiAl PST crystals by focused ion beam (FIB) technique and deformed in compression using a micro hardness testing machine equipped with a flat diamond tip in order to investigate the values of CRSS for the three types of operative deformation modes, namely ordinary slip, superlattice slip and twinning. The selective activation of the three types of deformation modes was confirmed to be achieved by compression tests of -oriented single crystalline micropillars, respectively. The average CRSS values for ordinary slip, superlattice slip and deformation twinning obtained for micropillars with an initial side length between 3.8 and 7.9μm were estimated to be about 145, 284 and 113 MPa, respectively.

The low cycle fatigue (LCF) behaviour of two cast as well as two hot extruded Fe3Al-based iron aluminide alloys, either with or without Cr, is investigated. All four alloys contain microalloying additions of Zr, Nb, C and B. Fatigue tests were carried out under strain control for strain amplitudes in the range of εa = 0.1 – 0.4 % for the cast alloys and εa = 0.1 – 0.7 % for the extruded materials, at frequencies of 1 Hz (extruded Fe3Al) and 3 Hz (all other alloys) and at room temperature and 300 °C. Within the first cycles all alloys show strong cyclic hardening. Furthermore the fatigue strain – fatigue life curves are steeper at 300 °C than at room temperature, showing increased fatigue strength at low cycle numbers due to increasing ductility and decreased fatigue strength at increasing cycle numbers because of reduced yield strength. Cr is found to have only a negligible influence on the fatigue behaviour of Fe3Al-based alloys. Comparison between the differently processed materials shows superior LCF properties of the hot extruded iron aluminides due to significantly smaller grain sizes.

The phase equilibria and oxidation resistance of alloys lying near the Cr-rich end of the Cr- Ta-Si system have been investigated. Samples were prepared by arc-melting and homogenized at 1300°C for 500hrs. Identification of the phases present and their compositions were carried out using x-ray diffraction and electron probe micro-analysis and the ternary phase diagram on the Cr-rich end was plotted. A three-phase equilibria was found to exist between an A2 Cr-solid solution, a hexagonal Laves phase and the A15 Cr3Si intermetallic phase for alloys with higher contents of Si.Thermo-gravimetric analysis of the alloys at 1100°C demonstrated an improvement in the oxidation resistance of the ternary alloys with increasing Si-content. The microstructures of the oxidized samples revealed the formation of a thick chromia layer on top of a Cr,Ta-mixed oxide layer and an internal oxidation zone for all the alloys. A protective silica layer was not observed to form in any of the alloys tested.

Phase equilibria among γ-Fe, ε-Fe2Nb Laves and δ-Ni3Nb phases in Fe-Ni-Nb ternary system at 1473 K and 1373 K were experimentally examined, and also assessed by calculation in order to calculate the phase equilibria among these phases at 973 K. A ternary compound with hP24 structure with its limited composition range of Fe-21.5Nb- (56.8-59.8) Ni exists between Fe2Nb and Ni3Nb phase regions at both temperatures. Including the hP24 phase, the calculated isotherms at both temperatures are in good agreement with experimental ones. By using the optimized interaction parameters among the three elements in each phase, the isothermal section calculated at 973 K revealed a γ-Fe+ Fe2Nb + Ni3Nb three-phase coexisting region extended to Fe-rich composition of 80 at. % Fe. This suggests a possibility to develop austenitic heatresistant steels strengthened by both intermetallics phases.