Innovative Powder Processing of Oxide Dispersion Strengthened ODS Ferritic Stainless Steels

An innovative gas atomization reaction synthesis technique was employed as a viable method to dramatically lower the processing cost for precursor oxide dispersion forming ferritic stainless steel powders (i.e., Fe-Cr-(Hf,Ti)-Y). During this rapid solidification process the atomized powders were enveloped by a nano-metric Cr-enriched metastable oxide film. Elevated temperature heat treatment was used to dissociate this metastable oxide phase through oxygen exchange reactions with Y-(Hf,Ti) enriched intermetallic compound precipitates. These solid state reactions resulted in the formation of highly stable nano-metric mixed oxide dispersoids (i.e., Y-Ti-O or Y-Hf-O) throughout the alloy microstructure. Subsequent high temperature (1200 C) heat treatments were used to elucidate the thermal stability of each nano-metric oxide dispersoid phase. Transmission electron microscopy coupled with X-ray diffraction was used to evaluate phase evolution within the alloy microstructure