Thermomechanical Processing of Cost-Affordable Powder Metallurgy Ti-5Fe Alloys from the Blended Elemental Approach: Microstructure, Tensile Deformation Behavior, and Failure

The development of cost-affordable Ti alloys is key for the application of Ti in other industries like the automobile sector. Therefore, a combination of powder metallurgy (PM) and low-cost compositions is an interesting approach. In this article, a cost-affordable PM Ti-5Fe alloy is processed following the blended elemental route and extruded at high temperature to remove porosity. Different extrusion temperatures and heat treatments (i.e., solution treatment and aging, STA) are performed to obtain ultrafine microstructures, and their effect on the mechanical behavior is studied. For extrusions in the β phase, microstructures consist of coarse lamellar colonies, resulting in alloys with improved properties compared to the as-sintered alloy but still lacking toughness due to the failure happening just after necking onset. Extruding in the α + β phase results in a bimodal microstructure of fine elongated primary α and coarse lamellar colonies, and the alloy becomes tougher. STA with aging below the eutectoid temperature of 590 °C leads to a hard but brittle alloy, whereas STA with aging above it results in alloys with strength comparable to the as-extruded conditions and enhanced ductility.

Equal Channel Angular Pressing Consolidation and Heat Treatment of Blended Elemental Powders of Fe-Mn-Al

In this work, the consolidation of blended elemental powders of iron, manganese and aluminum (Fe-25Mn-15Al wt.%) was performed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP). Samples were consolidated at room temperature in a Φ = 120° die by a single pass and a second pass in route A. Both samples were heat treated at 650 °C and water cooled. Prior to heat treatment, samples presented a dense but chemically inhomogeneous structure. Fe and Al particles were highly deformed, whereas, Mn was almost undeformed. Mn particles were partially shattered by friction with Fe and Al particles. After heat treatment, the samples were characterized by SEM-EDX and presented substantial interdiffusion along the particles interfaces. It is believed that higher deformations by ECAP may improve the sinterability of consolidated samples in order to densify and chemically homogenize it.