Polycrystalline Fe 100− x Al x samples were high-frequency melted, then annealed in vacuum at 1000°C for 72h. Later, the bulk material was cooled either in a furnace (10°C/min.) or quenched directly in water, in order to investigate the influence of the structure and atomic ordering on magnetostriction. The microstructure shows large particles with sizes up to 1mm; however, each particle consists of sub-particles of sizes around 100–200μm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments prove a disordered A2 structure for all samples, except for a 25at% ordered B2 phase. The highest longitudinal magnetostriction was measured for slow-cooled Fe 81 Al 19 (λ long ≈62ppm). In all cases a strong dependence of the longitudinal as well as the transversal magnetostriction on the heat treatment was found. The variation of λ total with heat treatment is a clear indication of a preferential orientation of the grains.