The sintering densification and microstructure evolutions of Ti-1Al-8V-5Fe alloy with Si additions

ABSTRACT

The cost-efficient Ti-1Al-8V-5Fe-xSi (denoted Ti-185-xSi hereafter, x = 0, 0.15, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 0.75) alloys are synthesized by cold compaction and sintering powder metallurgy (PM) technology using TiH₂ and high-pure FeV₈₀ powders. The sintering densification, microstructural evolutions and mechanical behavior of Ti-185-xSi alloys sintered at 1350°C are investigated. The results show that the Si element is favorable to enhance the sintered density of Ti-185 alloys, which should be limited to ≤0.3%. The amount and average size of precipitate Ti₅Si₃ increase in the Ti-185 alloys with increasing Si content. Meanwhile, the Rockwell hardness of Ti-185 alloy also displays an increasing tendency, suggesting the Si element can improve the hardness of Ti-185. The Ti-185–0.15Si alloy possesses a better comprehensive mechanical property of strength (937 ± 8 MPa) and elongation (3.5%). The high-performance Ti-185 alloy is successfully prepared using low-cost FeV₈₀ master alloy with slight Si impurity instead of costly V.

KEYWORDS:

• Ti-185
• Si
• Ti₅Si₃
• PM
• sintering
• densification
• microstructure
• properties

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Xing Guo for some characterization analysis and testing the mechanical properties, Dr. Qiangguo Li for technical help and fructuous discussions. This work was mostly supported by Professor Yungui Chen from Sichuan University in China.