Development of low cost PM Ti alloys by thermomechanical processing of powder blends

This research focuses on the development of low cost powder metallurgy (PM) Ti alloys suitable for application in PM thermomechanical processing with mechanical properties comparable to those of wrought Ti6Al4V alloy. The alloy systems studied are Ti3Al2V, Ti5Fe and Ti3.2Fe1Cr0.6Ni0.1Mo (Ti5SS). The alloy mixtures were produced by blending Ti HDH powders with Al40V, 316SS master alloy powders or elemental Fe powder. The blended powders were further consolidated using various methods: high vacuum sintering (HVS), induction sintering (IS), powder compact forging (PCF) and powder compact extrusion (PCE). It is found that, PM Ti3Al2V and Ti5Fe alloy processed by PCE or PCF followed by recrystallization annealing (RA) achieved tensile properties comparable with wrought Ti6Al4V alloy. Tensile properties such as yield strength (YS) of 910MPa, UTS of 1010MPa and 15% elongation to fracture for Ti3Al2V alloy are reported. Ti5Fe alloy gives YS and UTS of 870MPa and 968MPa respectively, combined with 20.3% elongation to fracture. The tensile results are related to the microstructure developed during the consolidation processes. The oxygen contamination as a result of the high temperature processing is also reported

Advancement in the pressureless sintering of CP titanium using high-frequency induction heating

High-frequency induction heating is applied as an alternative heating source for pressureless sintering of commercially pure Ti powders, aiming to intensify the sintering process. The effects of the process parameters on the properties of the sintered material are systematically studied. The initial powder compact density is the most influential parameter permitting sintered structures with highly porous to almost fully dense appearance. Short heating time combined with sintering to temperatures just above the β-transus resulted in a strong diffusion bonding between the Ti powder particles, and grain growth is observed at the former boundaries of the neighboring powder particles. The dimpled appearance of the fracture surface at those regions confirmed the strong metallic interparticle bonding. Tensile properties comparable to those of Ti-Grade 3 and Ti-Grade 4 are achieved, which also demonstrates the efficiency of the induction sintering process. A mechanism explaining the fast and efficient sintering is proposed. The process has the added advantage of minimizing the oxygen pickup

Microstructural evolution during mechanical milling of Ti/Al powder mixture and production of intermetallic TiAl cathode target

Titanium aluminides are of great technological interest because of their attractive mechanical properties. Mechanical milling/alloying is a promising powder metallurgical technique, which can achieve ultrafine, uniform and manipulable microstructures. In this study, we employed a recently revisited discus mill to produce a composite Ti– (50–57) at.%Al powder feedstock, which is suitable for hot consolidation to produce bulk cathode targets for physical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings. The effects of milling time, quantity of process control agent (PCA) and discus-topowder weight ratio (DPR) on the microstructure evolution of the attendant Ti/Al composite powder were investigated in detail. It was found that to produce Ti/Al composite powders with a fine particle size and a uniform microstructure, the practicable processing parameters should be 2 or 3% isopropanol addition as PCA, 12 h of milling time and at least 13:1 DPR weight ratio. Cathode targets were produced by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) the as-milled powders. The targets were then used to produce a PVD TiAlN coating which had an average microhardness of 2400 HV

Effect of milling parameters on microstructure of Ti/Al composite powder produced by discus milling

The motivation of this research is to develop a process for producing Ti/Al composite powders that enable synthesis of a single-phase TiAl intermetallic bulk material, which is then used as a target for physical vapour deposition (PVD) coating. This study reports the effects of milling time, amount of process control agent (PCA) added as well as the powder-to-medium ratio on the microstructure of the Ti/Al composite powder. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to evaluate the level of mixing and the resulting powder particle size. X-ray diffraction analysis and differential thermal analysis were used for determining the phase constituents and the solid state reaction temperature of the as-milled powders

Fabrication of TiAl target by mechanical alloying and applications in physical vapour deposition coating

The research involves the development of a powder metallurgical route for producing good quality TiAl targets for making physical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings. Mixtures of elemental titanium and aluminium powders were mechanically milled using a novel discus milling technique under various conditions. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was then employed for consolidation of the mechanically alloyed powders. A cathodic arc vapour deposition process was applied to produce a TiAIN coating. A microstructural examination was conducted on the target material and PVD coatings, using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It has been found that combining mechanical alloying and HIP enable us to produce a fairly good quality of TiAl based target. The PVD coatings obtained from the TiAl target showed very high microhardness values