Abstract
Abstract
The sintered and water quenched compact samples were prepared from unmilled and milled Co powders.
Characterisation was performed by differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy and
X-ray diffraction techniques. Several metastable phases were obtained upon sintering and quenching. However,
more metastable phases were induced on quenching the milled–sintered samples due to introduction of
large number of defects in addition to those induced by milling. Micro hardness values for unmilled sintered
samples were the lowest while those of 30 h milled-sintered samples were the highest. The current study reveals
that the two FCC metastable phases obtained by quenching unmilled powder were similar to those
found in milled–sintered samples.