A method of welding a superalloy component includes the following sequential steps. A welding step for welding a cavity using a filler metal in an inert atmosphere, where the cavity is located in the component. A covering step for covering the filler metal and a portion of the component with a weld filler layer in the inert atmosphere. The weld filler layer has a greater ductility than material comprising the component and/or material comprising the filler metal. A second covering step for covering the weld filler layer with a braze material, and subsequently performing a brazing operation. A heat treating step heat treats the component.

There is provided a thermoelectric conversion material made of a full-Heusler alloy and capable of enhancing figure of merit. In order to solve the above problem, the thermoelectric conversion material is made of the full-Heusler alloy represented by the following composition formula: (Fe.sub.1-xM1.sub.x).sub.2+(Ti.sub.1-yM2.sub.y).sub.1+(A.sub.1-zM3.sub.z).sub.1+. A composition in a ternary phase diagram of FeTi-A is inside a hexagon having points (50, 37, 13), (45, 30, 25), (39.5, 25, 35.5), (50, 14, 36), (54, 21, 25), and (55.5, 25, 19.5) as apexes. Further, an amount of change VEC of an average valence electron number per atom VEC in the case of x=y=z=0 satisfies a relation 0<|VEC|0.2 or 0.2<|VEC|0.3.

A strain-hardenable stainless steel alloy includes hard secondary phases dispersed in an austenitic primary phase, the alloy including 0.3-0.6% nitrogen by weight.

Process for the manufacture of a steel material, wherein the grains of which it is composed comprise a matrix into which precipitates are incorporated, the precipitates comprising at least one metallic element selected from a metallic element M, a metallic element M, a metallic element M or mixtures thereof; the microstructure of the steel being such that the grains are equiaxial and the average size of the grains being such that the average of their largest dimension Dmax and/or the average of their smallest dimension Dmin is in the range 10 ?m to 50 ?m. The steel material has optimised, stable and isotropic mechanical properties, in particular so that the steel material is more resistant to mechanical and/or thermal stresses.

A method of manufacturing an article, the method comprising: controlling an additive manufacturing printer to build an article in a cavity of a build chamber from a powdered material, the build chamber being removable from the additive manufacturing printer and including one or more heaters configured to provide thermal energy to the cavity of the building chamber; and controlling the one or more heaters of the build chamber to heat the article to a predetermined temperature while building the article to prevent the article from cracking while the build chamber and the article are transferred from the additive manufacturing printer to a heater, the predetermined temperature being between the upper temperature of the ductility drop temperature range of the powdered material and the sintering temperature of the powdered material.

In a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) method, the component to be treated, affected by imperfections, like porosity, cracks and cavities in its structure, is placed into a container together with non-metallic material in form of powder or grains having size greater than the porosity and the cracks and imperfections of the component. During the HIP process, the non-metallic material presses on the whole surface of the embedded component in order to generate a combination of temperature and forces capable to reduce defects, embedded and not embedded, in the component itself. The component is not contaminated during the process thus allowing easily removal of the non-metallic material by a simple operation of mechanical cleaning or chemical washing.

Material and method for the production of material with isotropic, mechanical properties and improved wear resistance and high hardness potential. Method includes producing in a powder metallurgical (PM) method a slug or ingot from a material of ledeburite tool steel alloy, and subjecting one of the slug or ingot or a semi-finished product produced from the slug or ingot to full annealing at a temperature of over 1100 C., but at least 10 C. below the fusing temperature of the lowest melting structure phase with a duration of over 12 hrs. In this manner, an average carbide phase size of the material is increased by at least 65%, a surface shape of the material is rounded and a matrix is homogenized. Method further includes subsequently processing the material into thermally tempered tools with high wear resistance occurs or into parts to which abrasive stress is applied.

The invention relates to a stainless steel blank for making a Damascus patterned article, wherein the steel blank is made from at least two different nitrogen alloyed stainless steels having a chromium content of 11-25 weight %, of which at least one of the steels comprises nitrogen in an amount of 0.10-5.0 weight % and, optionally, at least one of the steels comprises nitrogen in an amount of 0.01-0.5 weight %.

A method for the production of complex geometry, and even large, highly performant metal-comprising components in a cost effective way. The method is also indicated for the construction of components with internal features and voids. The method is also beneficial for light construction. The method allows the reproduction of bio-mimetic structures and other advanced structures for topological performance optimization.

Process for the treatment of a steel material, wherein the grains of which it is composed include a matrix into which precipitates are incorporated. The precipitates include at least one metallic element selected from a metallic element M, a metallic element M, a metallic element M or mixtures thereof. The microstructure of the steel is such that the grains are equiaxial and the average size of the grains being such that the average of their largest dimension Dmax and/or the average of their smallest dimension Dmin is in the range 10 m to 50 m.