Ductility in rapidly solidified NiAl

An attempt is made to refine the grain structure of equiatomic NiAl by means of rapid solidification processing, and to examine the effect of small grain size on room temperature ductility. Free melt spinning was used to produce the rapidly solidified material. Room temperature bend testing of both as-spun and heat-treated NiAl ribbon was conducted by free bending the ribbon around a mandrel of successively smaller diameter until failure occurred. Room-temperature plastic deformation was exhibited both before and after a 1-h heat treatment at 1000 C. Heat treatment increased the observed ductility.