Preparation of Dense Ultrafine TiAl Alloys by Spark Plasma Synthesis from Mechanically Activated Powders

Powder of Ti-46at%Al alloy was synthesized through mechanical activation (MA) and then sintered and concurrently consolidated in a short sintering time of 900 s by using spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The XRD and SEM profiles show that the microstructures of TiAl alloys contained gamma TiAl and small amount alpha-2 Ti3Al phase, whose amount can be controlled by the sintering temperature. The compacts retained the original fine-grained fully densified bodies by avoiding an excessively high sintering temperature. The alloys sintered at higher temperature with this process showed a coarser microstructure. So it is possible to produce dense nanostructured TiAl alloys by mechanically activated spark plasma sintering (MASPS) within a very short period of time.