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

The high-temperature self-propagating synthesis (SHS) of carbides and borides in powder systems (30, 50, 70) wt.% (Fe-Ga)-(Ti-C) and (30, 50, 70) wt.% (Fe-Ga)-(Ti-B4C) was investigated at a temperature of 1200 °C in a neutral argon atmosphere. It was established that the introduction of a master alloy (Fe-55 wt.% Ga) into the initial mixture intensifies the SHS process. The appearance of a liquid phase at lower temperatures in gallium-containing systems is likely one of the main reasons for the activation of transport mechanisms for mass transfer to the chemical reaction front. Corrosion tests in a simulated seawater environment (3% NaCl solution) showed that simultaneous alloying of iron with gallium and boron significantly increases the corrosion resistance of iron-based materials. Specifically, the material containing 30 wt.% (Fe-Ga)-(Ti-B4C) demonstrated high protection (ASTM G-1, Good) in an environment close to seawater.

The contact interaction between the metal matrix composite based on Ti64 and the B4C-based composite was investigated. It is shown that the interaction process is influenced by the annealing temperature and holding time. The phase that formed independently of the contact pair is TiB. However, the thickness of the products formed at the boundary depends on the contact pair. In case of the Ti64-B4C pair the thickness is 70 μm, while for (Ti64-40 wt% TiC)-B4C it becomes 10 μm. This significant difference in the thickness is due to the presence of refractory particles (TiC) in (Ti64-40 wt% TiC)-B4C couple, because the TiC phse reduce the diffusion of Ti into the contact zone.

X-ray diffraction analysis of the Fe-35%FKh800-(0.38-2.2%)TiB2 system samples showed that a multiphase composition of materials is formed during the sintering process. The basis of the sintered composite is the ferrite α-Fe phase, which is a metallic ironchromium matrix, with γ-Fe, complex iron-chromium carbide (Fe,Cr)7C3, and carboboride phases in small amounts: borocementite – Fe3(B0.7,C0.3) with a rhombohedral lattice and carboboride Fe23(C,B)6 with a cubic lattice and a number of carbides (Cr7C3, Cr3C2). The research established the non-monotonic nature of the effect of the TiB2 additive content on the lattice parameters of the ferrite α-Fe and austenitic γ-Fe phases, as well as on the change in the intensity of the 111 line of the austenitic phase. According to the phase composition data and studies of the fine structure (substructure) of the sintered samples of the Fe-FKh800-TiB2 system materials, it can be noted that the components of the TiB2 alloying additive take an active part in the formation of the phase composition, as well as in the process of alloying the matrix phase, which is reflected in the numerical values of the substructure parameters.

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.