International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Titanium–titanium boride (Ti/TiC) metal matrix composites have been widely identified as promising materials for various applications. The traditional ingot metallurgy processing strategies used to fabricate these materials are energy intensive and have fallen short of their perceived mass production potentials. Powder metallurgy processing of Ti/TiC composites from titanium and TiC powder blends, is currently widely used for the cost-efficient production of such composites. Additional processing by the method of hot pressing improves the structure and mechanical properties of this class of materials. The composites have the heterogenous microstructure with areas high hardness area over 1173 HV. While matrix and inclusions had the value of 700 HV.

Titanium–titanium boride (Ti/TiB) metal matrix composites have been widely identified as promising materials for various applications. The traditional ingot metallurgy processing strategies used to fabricate these materials are energy intensive and have fallen short of their perceived mass production potentials. Powder metallurgy processing, especially that aimed at in-situ synthesis of Ti/TiB composites from titanium and TiB2 powder blends, is currently widely used for the cost-efficient production of such composites. Additional processing by the method of hot pressing improves the structure and mechanical properties of this class of materials.

Porous materials are very efficient in absorbing mechanical energy, for instance, in combined armor, in order to improve the anti-ballistic protection characteristics. In the present study, porous titanium-based structures were manufactured via powder metallurgy methods using titanium hydride (TiH2) powder, which provided activated sintering, owing to dehydrogenation. The emission of hydrogen and shrinkage of powder particles on dehydrogenation also added a potential to control the sintering process and create desirable porosities. TiH2 powder was sintered with additions of ammonium as pore holding removable agents. The microstructures and porosities of sintered dehydrogenated titanium with different concentration ammonium were comparatively studied. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated using compression testing with strain rates varying from quasi-static to high levels. All testing methods were aimed at characterizing the energy-absorbing ability of the obtained porous structures. The desired strength, plasticity and energy-absorbing characteristics of porous titanium based structures were assessed, and the possibilities of their application were also discussed.

The high specific strength of Ti-based alloys and composites makes them highly requested materials in various structural applications. However, reinforcement of the alloys with hard particles generally lowers the values of toughness and plasticity of material. A satisfactory combination of plastic and strength can be achieved by formation of layered structures comprising of two and more layers of different materials with different chemical compositions within individual layers. The multi-layer materials allow controlling the mechanical properties of the individual layers by changing microstructure and chemical composition within each layer specifically. In the present study, a cost-efficient process of fabrication of Ti-based multi-layer composites using blended elemental powder metallurgy (BEPM) and TiH2 powder is proposed. Two and three-layered composites based on titanium or Ti-6Al-4V alloy and their metal-matrix composites (MMC) with TiC and TiB were fabricated. Multi-layered samples reinforced by TiC were successfully sintered due to very close shrinkage of adjacent layers. Shrinkage values of layers reinforced by TiB were lower than those for the Ti-alloy, which led to delamination of layered structures, distortion of shape, and cracking. We can control shrinkage in individual layers by means of optimizing the powder size, that allows to obtain multi-layer titanium matrix composites reinforced by TiB with well-balanced mechanical properties.

Biomedical alloys 19Ti-59Zr-22Nb and 40 Ti-35Zr-25Nb were produced by blended elemental powder metallurgy approach using TiH2, ZrH2 and Nb powders. Usage of hydrogen as temporary alloying element for titanium and zirconium leads to activated sintering and decreased residual porosity of the alloys produced. Contrary, large amount of Nb powder negatively affects sintering and 6-9% residual porosity is observed in sintered alloys. Two-stage sintering (TSS) approach which includes preliminary sintering of powder blends, hydrogenation of sintered products, crushed in powder and sintering again, was used to obtain uniform alloys with reduced porosity. Volume changes of sintering of noted powder blends and prealloyed powders were investigated together with microstructure of sintered materials. Using prealloyed hydrogenated powders in TSS process resulted in activated densification, improved homogeneity of alloy microstructures and low (~2%) residual porosity.

Compositions of the products of the electrolysis of melts based on a eutectic mixture of sodium chloride–lithium fluoride and sodium tungstate, which contains molybdenum (VI) and tungsten (VI) oxides, molybdates, tungstates, and carbonates of lithium or sodium, are investigated. It is shown that, depending on the content of melt components, the products of electrolysis are carbon, molybdenum, tungsten, and their bronzes and carbides. The conditions of the deposition of galvanic coatings of molybdenum and tungsten carbides on carbon, nickel, and copper matrices are determined.

Peculiarities of titanium carbide obtainment by high voltage electric discharge synthesis (HVED) are considered in present paper. Mathematical and physical modelling of processes that occur during HVED impact on “Ti powder – hydrocarbon liquid” disperse system is performed. HVED creates thermodynamic conditions for pyrolysis of hydrocarbon liquid with formation of solid-phase carbon and gaseous hydrogen and for synthesis of titanium carbide during reaction of carbidization between titanium and carbon particles. Regularities of connection between HVED parameters and changes of dispersity and intensity of titanium carbide formation.

Prospects for creation of plasma electric discharge technology for production of dispersion-hardened by nanoparticles composite materials are considered. Physical modelling of plasma formations distribution in discharge camera is performed. The regularities of the electric discharge processing parameters influence on dispersity, phase composition and electrical resistivity of obtained powders are studied. The regime for spark plasma sintering of processes powders is theoretically and experimentally justified.

The effect of filler concentration of the powder mixture (Ti-TiC-C), synthesized by high-voltage electric discharge (HVED), on the thermal and mechanical properties of epoxy composites, was studied. Basing on the value analysis of destructive stresses in bending (σ), Young’s modulus (E), resilience (W) and heat resistant by Martens (T), a range of powder mixture (Ti-TiC-C) concentration, which allows to increase thermophysical and mechanical properties of epoxy composites for manufacturing equipment in conditions of alternating loads was set.

A brief analysis of studies in field of metal-matrix composite (MMC) materials production with use of pulsed-discharge technology (PDT) is performed in present paper. It is shown that high voltage electric discharge (HVED) in liquid allows obtaining homogeneous highly disperse blend of complex chemical composition. Consolidation of blend by method of spark-plasma sintering (SPS) ensures preservation of grain size, which allows achieving high strength characteristics of MMC.