Heat resisting metal fiber sintered body

A method of making a metal fiber sintered body comprising the steps of:

• a) making a tow of Fe--Cr--Al--La, Fe--Cr--Al--Y or Fe--Cr--Al--Ce continuous fibers by lathe turning an end face of a coiled material at a tool feed speed of from 5 to 40 .mu.m/rev, said coiled material being made by coiling a thin sheet of an Fe--Cr--Al--La, Fe--Cr--Al--Y or Fe--Cr--Al--Ce stainless steel;
• b) extending the tow in a width direction formed in step a) and cutting the tow with at least two roller type cutting assemblies to form Fe--Cr--Al--La, Fe--Cr--Al--Y or Fe--Cr--Al--Ce stainless steel fibers having a fiber length of 20 to 200 mm;
• c) feeding the Fe--Cr--Al--La, Fe--Cr--Al--Y or Fe--Cr--Al--Ce stainless steel fibers to a conveyor and dropping said stainless steel fibers on the conveyor;
• d) dispersing said stainless steel fibers by making an air current act on the stainless steel fibers in a direction intersecting with a direction in which the fibers are being dropped onto the conveyor in step c) to form a sheet-shaped accumulation of the stainless steel fibers on the conveyor;
• e) transporting the sheet-shaped accumulation on the conveyor and compressing said sheet-shaped accumulation by means of a pressure roller located at an exit end of the conveyor to form a web;
• and
• f) sintering said web;
• wherein said stainless steel fibers have a thickness of from 7.5 to 180 .mu.m and comprise from 17 to 21% by weight Cr, from 2.5 to 6.5% by weight Al, from 0.02 to 0.25% by weight of La, Y or Ce as well as iron.