Method of producing metallic materials
AssigneeBechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC
InventorDaniel J. Branagan
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Abstract
The invention includes a method of producing a hard metallic material by forming a mixture containing at least 55% iron and at least one of B, C, Si and P. The mixture is formed into an alloy and cooled to form a metallic material having a hardness greater than about 9.2 GPa. The invention includes a method of forming a wire by combining a metal strip and a powder. The strip and the powder are rolled to form a wire containing at least 55% iron and from 2-7 additional elements including at least one of C, Si and B. The invention also includes a method of forming a hardened surface on a substrate by processing a solid mass to form a powder, applying the powder to a surface to form a layer containing metallic glass, and converting the glass to a crystalline material having a nanocrystalline grain size.
Claims10
A method of producing a hard metallic material, comprising:
- providing a mixture of elements, the mixture comprising at least about 55 percent Fe by weight, and comprising B;
- forming the mixture into an alloy;
- and
- cooling the alloy at a rate of less than about 5000 K per second to form a metallic material having a hardness of greater than about 9.2 GPa.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.