Gradient microstructure of Fe-Cr-Co based hard magnetic alloy subjected to complex loading

Abstract Creation of gradient structures is of particular importance for industries requiring taylorable set of material properties in the bulk of the material. Among various ways of introducing variable grain size is subjecting the material to the strain mode corresponding to combination of tension and torsion. In this work we compare loading modes associated with varying amounts of tension and torsion components analyzing the microstructure and microhardness of the final product. We establish that the material under torsion is more resistant to localization of deformation in comparison with stretching. It is shown that torsion/tension complex loading can be used for manufacturing cylindrical billets of hard magnetic alloys of the Fe-Cr-Co system with both a gradient structure and a homogeneous microcrystalline structure.