The Importance of the Fluorine Effect on the Oxidation of Intermetallic Titanium Aluminides

Due to the low Al activity within technical titanium aluminides and the similar thermodynamic stabilities of Al- and Ti-oxide these alloys always form a mixed oxide scale at elevated temperatures consisting of TiO2, Al2O3 and also nitrides if the exposure takes place in air. This mixed scale does not provide any oxidation protection especially under thermocyclic load or in water vapor containing environments. Thus accelerated oxidation occurs. Alloying of additional elements such as Nb improves the oxidation behavior if the additions stay within a certain concentration range but such additions cannot suppress non-protective mixed scale formation. Coatings are another way to protect these materials but several obstacles and new degradation mechanisms exist such as delamination e.g. due to CTE mismatch or development of brittle intermetallic phases due to interdiffusion. Therefore, other suitable protective measures have to be undertaken to make sure a protective oxide scale will develop. The so called halogen effect is a very promising way to change the oxidation mechanism from mixed scale formation to alumina formation. After optimized halogen treatment the alumina layer is very protective up to several thousand hours even under thermocyclic load and in atmospheres containing water vapor or SO2

FLOPPY EYELID SYNDROME AND OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA

In this concise review, some essential characteristics of a relatively rare ocular disorder, floppy eyelid syndrome, are described. A special emphasis is made on the close relationships between this eye disease, on the one hand, and obstructive sleep apnea designed as a common and socially significant pathology of modern society, on the other hand. Along with conservative drug treatment, a variety of effective surgical techniques for the treatment of floppy eyelid syndrome are presented. A closer collaboration between ophthalmologists and sleep medicine specialists are needed to solve the problems of obstructive sleep apnea-related floppy eyelid syndrome

Suppressing the oxygen ingress into Ti-alloys by a one-step Al- plus F-treatment

Oxygen ingress into technical Ti-alloys during high temperature exposure in oxygen containing environments leads to an enriched surface zone due to the high oxygen solubility in titanium. This affected zone is known as alpha case and is embrittled compared to the substrate material. Therefore, the operating temperature of these alloys is limited. An enrichment of Al in the surface zone of Ti-alloys leads to an improvement by the formation of intermetallic TixAly-phases with decreased oxygen solubility. This one-step Al-enrichment plus a F-treatment is proposed for the formation of a continuous stable alumina scale which prevents oxygen inward diffusion. In this paper the results of high temperature exposure tests in air of technical Ti-alloys are presented without any treatment and treated with Al-enrichment including fluorination. Post experimental investigations such as SEM reveal the formation of thin alumina layers on treated samples. Hardness measurements confirm that no embrittlement was observed for the treated samples while untreated specimens show increased hardness values in the subsurface zone corresponding with the oxygen inward diffusion profile