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

Titanium matrix composites reinforced with titanium borides (TiB) represent a promising class of advanced structural materials due to their high specific strength, hardness, wear resistance, and thermal stability. The combination of titanium alloys with ceramic TiB reinforcing phases enables the development of lightweight materials with improved mechanical and эксплуатаційними characteristics for aerospace, biomedical, and engineering applications.
This study investigates the fabrication of Ti/TiB titanium matrix composites using X-Beam 3D printing technology. The process is based on electron-beam additive manufacturing under vacuum conditions, which ensures stable melting conditions, reduced oxidation, and controlled heat input during layer-by-layer deposition. Special attention was focused on the in situ formation of TiB reinforcing phases and their influence on the microstructure evolution of the composite material.
Microstructural analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy and metallographic techniques. The obtained results demonstrated the formation of dense composite structures with relatively low porosity and homogeneous distribution of reinforcing phases within the titanium matrix. TiB particles and whisker-like precipitates were observed to form during solidification, contributing to microstructure refinement and strengthening effects.
The fabricated Ti/TiB composites exhibited improved structural uniformity and enhanced hardness compared with unreinforced titanium materials. The morphology and distribution of TiB phases were found to depend on the thermal conditions and processing parameters of X-Beam printing. The results confirm the potential of X-Beam additive manufacturing for producing advanced titanium matrix composites with tailored microstructure and improved performance characteristics.

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.