A method is provided in which a lower box comprising a base, walls that surround the base and an open side, and an upper box comprising a cover, walls that surround the cover and an open side are provided. One or more objects are arranged on the base of the lower box. The object(s) are covered with the upper box such that the open side of the upper is oriented towards the base of the box, the walls of the upper box are arranged on the base of the lower box and a gap is formed between the walls of the upper box and the walls of the lower box. A powder material is introduced into the gap in order to form an assembly having an interior. The powder material provides a mechanical obstacle to gas exchange between the interior and the environment. This assembly is then heat treated.

New types of particle feedstocks and heterogeneous grain structures are provided for rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) and their production in a manner to significantly enhance toughness of the magnet with little or no sacrifice in the hard magnetic properties. The novel tough REPMs made from the feedstock have heterogeneous grain structures, such as bi-modal, tri-modal, multi-modal, laminated, gridded, gradient fine/coarse grain structures, or other microstructural heterogeneity and configurations, without changing the chemical compositions of magnets.

New types of particle feedstocks and heterogeneous grain structures are provided for rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) and their production in a manner to significantly enhance toughness of the magnet with little or no sacrifice in the hard magnetic properties. The novel tough REPMs made from the feedstock have heterogeneous grain structures, such as bi-modal, tri-modal, multi-modal, laminated, gridded, gradient fine/coarse grain structures, or other microstructural heterogeneity and configurations, without changing the chemical compositions of magnets.

A method is provided in which a lower box comprising a base, walls that surround the base and an open side, and an upper box comprising a cover, walls that surround the cover and an open side are provided. One or more objects are arranged on the base of the lower box. The object(s) are covered with the upper box such that the open side of the upper is oriented towards the base of the box, the walls of the upper box are arranged on the base of the lower box and a gap is formed between the walls of the upper box and the walls of the lower box. A powder material is introduced into the gap in order to form an assembly having an interior. The powder material provides a mechanical obstacle to gas exchange between the interior and the environment. This assembly is then heat treated.

A method is provided for the heat treatment of an object comprising at least one rare-earth element with a high vapor pressure. One or more objects comprising at least one rare-earth element with a high vapor pressure are arranged in an interior of a package. An external source of the at least one rare-earth element is arranged so as to compensate for the evaporation of this same rare-earth element from the object and/or to increase the vapor pressure of the rare-earth element in the interior of the package, and the package is heat treated.

A method and a system for manufacturing a structure includes the steps of: (a) supplying a mixture consisting a plurality of primitive materials at a target spot; (b) melting and solidifying the mixture disposed at the target spot to form a portion of a metallic structure consisting of an alloy of the plurality of the primitive materials; and (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) at a plurality of target spots in a three-dimensional space to produce the metallic structure of the alloy.

Novel metallic systems and methods for their fabrication provide an extreme creep-resistant nano-crystalline metallic material. The material comprises a matrix formed of a solvent metal with crystalline grains having diameters of no more than about 500 nm, and a plurality of dispersed metallic particles formed on the basis of a solute metal in the solvent metal matrix and having diameters of no more than about 200 nm. The particle density along the grain boundary of the matrix is as high as about 2 nm.sup.2 of grain boundary area per particle so as to substantially block grain boundary motion and rotation and limit creep at temperatures above 35% of the melting point of the material.

A single crystal particle powder having a crystal structure of TbCu.sub.7-type of the present invention is represented by the general formula:
[Chemical Formula 1]
(R.sub.1-zM.sub.z)T.sub.x(1)
or the general formula:
[Chemical Formula 2]
(R.sub.1-zM.sub.z)T.sub.xN.sub.y(2)
and has a crystal structure of TbCu.sub.7-type,
wherein R is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Sm and Nd, T is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Fe and Co, x is 7.0x10.0, y is 1.0y2.0, and z is 0.0z0.3.

A masking apparatus for masking a part during coating and comprising at least two sintered pieces of a mask material. The pieces have an assembled condition forming a compartment shaped to accommodate an airfoil of the part. The pieces have an average overall composition of: nickel as a largest by-weight constituent; aluminum as a second largest by-weight constituent; and chromium as a third largest by-weight constituent.

A carbon-metal composite includes a flake-like graphite powder, and a metal covering a circumferential end portion of the flake-like graphite powder to thereby improve the contact resistance of crystalline graphite, and to provide a composition containing a carbon material having improved contact resistance.