Patent ID: 7553383
Filing Date: 2009-06-30
Classification: B22F,C21B,C21C,C22B

Abstract:
1. A method for fabricating a metallic article made of metallic constituent elements, comprising the steps of furnishing a mixture of nonmetallic precursor compounds of the metallic constituent elements; chemically reducing the mixture of nonmetallic precursor compounds to produce a metallic iron-base alloy, without melting the metallic iron-base alloy, wherein the step of chemically reducing includes the step of chemically reducing the mixture of nonmetallic precursor compounds by solid-phase reduction and consolidating the metallic iron-base alloy to produce a consolidated metallic article, without melting the metallic iron-base alloy and without melting the consolidated metallic article; and heat treating the consolidated metallic article to produce a continuous body-centered cubic or body-centered tetragonal crystal structure matrix phase in the iron-base alloy, wherein at least about 75 percent by volume of the body-centered cubic or body-centered tetragonal matrix phase is present in an acicular phase morphology, wherein the step of chemically reducing includes the step of producing a sponge of the metallic iron-base alloy.