First developed for applications in the aerospace industry, mechanical alloying is used today for a range of superalloys used in the automotive and aerospace industries as well as in applications like:

• Gas or steam turbines
• Solar thermal power plants
• Heat exchangers in nuclear power plants

Mechanical alloying is largely what it sounds like: creating a new alloy by mechanically forcing two or more metal powders together. The forcing is performed by the impact of media in a high energy ball mill.

Depending on the metals, mechanical alloying can provide some challenges. One is that the alloy may adhere to the tank surface and media. In these cases, a grind aid can be introduced to keep the alloy from adhering to other surfaces.

Pyrophoric materials – those that catch on fire spontaneously through the oxidation process – are another challenge. Attritor mills can be designed to mill in an inert atmosphere.

Union Process Attritors, which are inherently high energy, are well-suited for mechanical alloying and easily allow for milling in an inert atmosphere.

The?SD Series batch Attritor?is the mill of choice for mechanical alloying applications.