2002 Volume 43 Issue 8 Pages 1961-1965
With the aim of developing a large size bulk glassy Fe-based alloy with good soft magnetic properties by the powder metallurgy technique, we have applied the spark-plasma sintering technique to a Fe65Co10Ga5P12C4B4 glassy alloy powder with a large supercooled liquid region of 50 K before crystallization. The existence of the supercooled liquid region enabled us to form a large size bulk glassy alloy of 20 mm in diameter and 5 mm in thickness with a high relative density of 99%. The resulting bulk glassy alloy exhibits good soft magnetic properties, i.e., 1.20 T for saturation magnetization, 14 A/m for coercive force and 6000 for maximum permeability. The good soft magnetic properties for the multicomponent Fe-based bulk alloy are attributed to the combination of the high relative density and the maintenance of the single glassy structure. The success of forming the large size bulk glassy alloy with good soft magnetic properties by the powder metallurgy techniques is promising for future use as practical soft magnetic materials.