In this study, prealloyed austenitic stainless steel and premixed soft magnetic Ni-Fe permalloy compacts were consolidated through microwave and conventional sintering routes at combinations of various sintering temperatures and compaction pressures. Sintered alloys were characterized in terms of their densification, microstructural evolution as well as mechanical and magnetic properties. The effect of sintering method in terms of the applied sintering parameters on the final properties of the compacts were investigated in a comparative manner. It was determined that microwave sintered permalloys are superior compared to their conventionally sintered counterparts in densification response, microstructural characteristics such as pore shape and distribution as well as mechanical properties for both austenitic stainless steel and permalloy compacts. However, permeability of the microwave sintered permalloys was inferior to their conventionally sintered counterparts in some cases due to microstructural refinement associated with microwave sintering route.

This thesis is a study of tailoring amorphous Fe-B-Si based alloy to produce bulk glassy rods by adding Nb. We have prepared rapid quenched thin ribbons (thickness ~12 µm) by melt spinning, and glassy rods of diameter ~1mm by Cu-mold casting based on compositions (Fe0.78B0.13Si0.9)100-xNbx (x=0, 4, 8, 12), and studied their different physical properties. The melt-spun ribbons are found to be X-ray amorphous, whereas some nano-crystallinity is observed in the case of rods. All the ribbons show high saturation magnetization and low coercivity, which are the desirable characteristics of a soft ferromagnet. These ribbons are thus suitable for designing high frequency transformers, and sensors from an applications point of view. With increasing Nb content their saturation magnetization, ferromagnetic Curie temperature, and resistivity are found to decrease as expected. The temperature dependence of electrical resistivity shows small positive temperature co-efficient that is expected for a metallic disordered material. We have also studied the modification of the properties on thermal annealing the (Fe0.78B0.13Si0.9)96 Nb4 ribbon at different temperatures in a neutral atmosphere.

The ferromagnetic bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) started to be investigated only in the last 10 years.They are difficult to cast, but their properties are uniques. The work deals with casting, mechanical and soft magnetic properties of new Fe-based BMGs. Such alloys can be cast directly in samples with various geometries and they can be use as magnetic parts in different devices.

Fe-based amorphous powders are fabricated through gas and water atomization using industrial grade raw materials. The atomic structure of the powder is examined by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Eight of totally thirteen different compositions are proved completely amorphous or amorphous with traces of crystalline phase in the desired powder particle size (d > 75 μm) and five are crystalline. It reveals that the Glass Forming Ability (GFA) of atomized powders is well correlated to the GFA of as-casted rods or melt-span ribbons. In the present study at least 1.5-2 mm critical size of GFA for a target composition is necessary for the formation of amorphous powders in the desired particle size. The thermal stability of the amorphous powder is examined by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Applying the conventional powder metallurgy process the amorphous powders are mixed with the crystalline Somaloy® 110i, a commercial Soft Magnetic Composite (SMC) material from Höganäs AB in Sweden, and made into toroid-shaped components. The components are annealed aiming for improved soft-magnetic properties. The magnetic measurements are taken on copper-wire double coiled toroids. As a result, the total magnetic flux (B), coercivity (HC) and permeability (μmax) is reduced due to the addition of amorphous powders to Somaloy® 110i powder but the core losses (P) is at the same level despite reduced density. An improved soft magnetic property and core loss is revealed by the comparison to recent literature reports on SMC mixing of crystalline and amorphous powders.

The ferromagnetic bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) started to be investigated only in the last 10 years.They are difficult to cast, but their properties are uniques. The work deals with casting, mechanical and soft magnetic properties of new Fe-based BMGs. Such alloys can be cast directly in samples with various geometries and they can be use as magnetic parts in different devices.