This study aimed to develop Fe/Al multilayered metallic/intermetallic composites produced by hot pressing under an air atmosphere. Analyses were carried out on the composite plates made up of alternatively situated sheets of AA1050 aluminum alloy and DN04 low carbon steel, which were annealed at 903 K for 2, 5, and 10 h. Annealing was performed to obtain reaction layers of distinct thickness. The samples were examined using X-Ray diffraction and scanning and transmission electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-Ray spectrometer. To correlate the structural changes with mechanical properties, microhardness measurements in near-the-interface layers were performed. All the reaction layers grew with parabolic kinetics with η-Al5Fe2 intermetallic phase as the dominant component. After annealing for 5 and 10 hours, a thin sublayer of θ-Al13Fe4 phase was also detected.

In the present work, we performed the ultra-rapid annealing (URA) process for amorphous Fe78Ni8B14 melt-spun ribbons in order to obtain fine excellent microstructure assuring the best soft magnetic properties. Several microscopic methods mainly based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Lorentz TEM (L-TEM) were applied for detailed studies of the microstructure and magnetic domains structure. The investigation revealed that the optimized parameters of the URA process (500°C/0.5-5 s) lead to outstanding soft magnetic properties. A mixture containing close to 50% amorphous phase and 50% α-Fe nanocrystals of size up to 30 nm has been already obtained after annealing for 3 s. These annealing conditions appear to be the most suitable in terms of microstructure providing the best magnetic properties.