Heat Treatment of Friction Surfaced Steel-Aluminum Couple

Friction surfacing is a solid state process and it is amenable for deposition of aluminum on steel. In this investigation, the mild steel surface was coated with a layer of aluminum using friction surfacing route. The aluminum thickness was in the range of 40-50 μm. It was followed by a heat treatment step to convert aluminum layer in to an aluminide layer. Heat treatment was done in open atmosphere at 700 °C for 2 hours. Microstuctural analysis showed that the aluminide layer is mainly made of Fe2Al5 and Fe4Al13, FeAl and Fe3Al are minor in fraction. Formation of Fe2Al5 is discussed. The aluminide layer also has some amount of porosities.