Synthesis of Nb-based powder alloy by mechanical alloying and plasma spheroidization processes for additive manufacturing

[Display omitted] •Nb-Si based powder was obtained by mechanical alloying from elemental powders.•After mechanical alloying, powder consist of supersaturated Nb solid solution.•Plasma spheroidization stabilize Nb silicide and refine phases greatly.•The treatment mentioned in this work make powder usable for additive manufacturing. In this paper, Nb-25Ti-2Cr-2Al-16Si (at.%) powder was fabricated by mechanical alloying and plasma spheroidization processes. At the 300 min of milling in attritor, a uniform distribution of chemical elements can be obtained. Further increasing of milling time leads to drastically increase of the Fe contamination from grinding media. After plasma spheroidization, the microstructure of the powder consists of uniformly distributed Nb5Si3, Nb3Si and Nbss. The melting and rapid quenching process during plasma spheroidization tends to refine the phases and stabilize Nb silicides.