MICROSTRUCTURE OF COMMERCIALLY PURE TITANIUM AFTER CRYOGENIC MILLING AND SPARK PLASMA SINTERING

Commercially pure titanium was prepared by advanced powder metallurgy methods with the aim to produce the ultra-fine grained material. Cryogenic attritor milling was used as a first step to refine the microstructure at liquid argon temperatures to suppress recovery and dynamic recrystallization. Spark plasma sintering was subsequently employed to produce bulk material, exploiting its ability to achieve fully dense structure in short time and thus to reduce the grain growth. In order to understand the undergoing microstructurel changes during the process, detailed investigation was performed after each preparation step. Powder morphology was changed significantly after milling, while particle fragmentation was only limited. Grain size after sintering was in micrometer scale, relatively independent of sintering conditions.