Method of making a nanomatrix powder metal compact

Abstract

A method of making a powder metal compact is disclosed. The method includes forming a coated metallic powder comprising a plurality of coated metallic powder particles having particle cores with nanoscale metallic coating layers disposed thereon, wherein the metallic coating layers have a chemical composition and the particle cores have a chemical composition that is different than the chemical composition of the metallic coating layers. The method also includes applying a predetermined temperature and a predetermined pressure to the coated powder particles sufficient to form a powder metal compact by solid-phase sintering of the nanoscale metallic coating layers of the plurality of coated powder particles to form a substantially-continuous, cellular nanomatrix of a nanomatrix material, a plurality of dispersed particles dispersed within the cellular nanomatrix and a solid-state bond layer extending throughout the cellular nanomatrix.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.