Consolidation and mechanical behaviour of nanophase iron alloy powders prepared by mechanical milling

This special feature presents a brief overview of the recent developments in preparing and characterizing bulk nanocrystalline metallic alloys from mechanically milled powders, focusing on the work on iron alloys conducted in the author's laboratory. The strategies and procedures used for consolidating the powders into full density compacts while maintaining the grain sizes in the nanophase regime (<100 nm) are summarized. The unusual mechanical properties observed of the fully dense nanophase alloys, as well as their potential applications, are discussed in comparison with those of conventional coarse grained counterparts.