Effect of heat-treatment on the room temperature ductility of an ordered intermetallic Fe–Co–V alloy

We investigated the influence of heat-treatment conditions on the microstructure, tensile and fracture behavior of a cold rolled Fe–Co–V alloy. The cold rolled alloy exhibits a peak in yield stress when heat-treated in the ordered region at 600 °C/1 h/AC. On the other hand, the peak in ductility was observed when heat-treated in the disordered region at 850 °C. Samples heat-treated in the disordered region exhibited ductile dimple failure. Efforts were made to optimize the heat-treatment condition to obtain good ductility in the ordered condition. Heat-treating the alloy at 950 °C/5 min/WQ+600 °C/1 h/AC enhanced the ductility in the ordered condition. Microstructural observation and fracture behavior of the heat-treated alloy indicate that the improvement in ductility is due to the presence of fine α′+γ2 microstructure.