Commercially pure titanium is less expensive, generally more corrosion resistant and lower in strength than its alloys, and is not heat-treatable. The use of Ti and its alloys as construction materials under severe friction and wear conditions is limited due to their poor tribological properties. Nevertheless, proper addition of hard ceramic particles into Ti and its alloys has proved to be an efficient way to enhance their mechanical and wear properties. Our purpose in this work was to analyze the corrosion, tribocorrosion, mechanical and morphological effects of combining titanium carbide with titanium metal, to create a unique composite via spark plasma sintering technique (SPS). Composites with different mass percentage (1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt %) of ceramic phase were produced. The samples of pure Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy were also tested, as a reference. These composites were examined for mechanical properties and corrosion resistance in an environment similar to the human body (Ringer’s solution). Open circuit potential (OPC) and anodic polarization measurements were performed. The properties of titanium composites reinforced with micro- and nanocrystalline TiC powders were compared. It was stated that wear properties were significantly improved with increasing amount of TiC in matrix, especially in the case of nanocrystalline reinforcement. In terms of corrosion resistance, the composites showed slightly worse properties compared to pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy.
The present investigation has been made to assess the influence of B4C reinforced with Ti-6Al-4V matrix prepared by powder metallurgy route. High energy ball milling was used to prepare the composites. Cylindrical preforms were prepared using suitable die set assembly. The green preforms were sintered in the muffle furnace at 900°C for 1 h. Further the preforms were cooled inside the furnace till the room temperature has attained. SEM with EDS mapping analysis was used to evaluate the morphology and elemental confirmation of the prepared composite. The density and hardness of the samples are determined using Archimedes principle and Rockwell hardness testing machine. The wear resistance of the samples was determined by employing a pin on disc apparatus. The hardness of the composites (Ti-6Al-4V /10B4C) was increased while comparing to the base material (Ti-6Al-4V) which is attributed to the presence of hard ceramic phase. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) five level central composite design approach was accustomed and it minimised the amount of experimental conditions and developed mathematical models among the key process parameters namely wt. % of B4C, applied load and sliding distances to forecast the abrasive response of Specific Wear Rate (SWR) and Coefficient of Friction (CoF). Analysis of variance was used to check the validity of the developed model. The optimum parameters of specific wear rate and coefficient of friction were identified.
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