Fabrication of Fe-Cr-Mo powder metallurgy steel via a mechanical-alloying process

In this study, we employed a mechanical–alloying process to manufacture low-alloy CrL and CrM steel powders that have similar specifications to their water-atomized counterparts. X-ray diffraction showed that Mo and Cr are alloyed in Fe after four cycles of planetary milling for 1 h at 150 RPM with 15-min pauses between the cycles (designated as P2C4 process). Furthermore, the measured powder size was found to be similar to that of the water-atomized counterparts according to both scanning electron microscope images and laser particle size analysis. The samples were sintered at 1120 °C, after which the P2C4-milled CrL showed similar hardness to that of water-atomized CrL, whereas the P2C4-milled CrM showed about 45% lower hardness than that of its water-atomized counterpart. Water-atomized CrM consists of a well-developed lathtype microstructure (bainite or martensite), while a higher fraction of polygonal ferrite is observed in P2C4-milled CrM. This phase difference causes the reduction of hardness in the P2C4-milled CrM, implying that the phase transformation behavior of specimens produced via powder metallurgy is influenced by the powder fabrication method.