Aluminum-transition metal alloys made using rapidly solidified powers and method

An alloy, comprised of

• (a) at least one of the group consisting of nominally pure aluminum and conventional aluminum alloys containing at least 80 wt% aluminum, wherein said one of the group is further alloyed with between 8 to 16 wt% of at least one of the transition metals from the group consisting of iron, nickel, cobalt, chromium, manganese, vanadium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and zirconium and boron, wherein the maximum of vanadium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and zirconium in total is 5 wt% and the maximum amount of boron is 1 wt%,
• (b) said alloy being in powder form produced by rapid solidification of the melt of said alloy to produce a ribbon having predominately a metastable solid solution phase with a face-centered cubic structure and hardness values between 200 and 450 Kg/mm.sup.2, which is comminuted into powder said powder having an average particle size of less than 4 mesh (U.S. Standard), the particles being platelets having an average thickness of less than 0.1 mm.

An alloy represented by the formula Al.sub.85-90 Fe.sub.10-15 wherein the subscripts represent weight percent, said alloy being formed from the consolidation of particles of said alloy produced from a comminuted solid body thereof resulting from a melt of said alloy being subjected to cooling rates of about 10.sup.5 .degree. to 10.sup.7 .degree. C./sec., said alloy having an ultrafine dispersion of the intermetallic phase FeAl.sub.3 and having a thickness of at least 1 mm in the shortest dimension and an average tensile strength of at least 40,000 psi at 300.degree. C.