Production of High-strength Titanium Alloy Using Pre-alloyed Powder as a Starting Material

In order to develop low-cost and high-strength titanium alloy, a production method using pre-alloyed titanium powder has been investigated. Ti-6Al-4V pre-alloyed powder was prepared by HDH process using Ti-6Al-4V alloy turning chip as a starting material. Mixed powder of Ti-6Al-4V pre-alloyed powder and 3 to 4 % iron powder was consolidated by hot extrusion process. In this study, the following results were obtained. Almost full densification of pre-alloyed powder has been confirmed by hot extrusion process. Titanium alloy containing high amount of iron up to 4 % can be produced without iron segregation by powder metallurgical process. This titanium alloy possibly shows higher tensile strength by 2 to 30 % than Ti-6Al-4V alloy maintaining elongation of 10 %. These data suggest that highly iron containing titanium alloy produced by pre-alloyed powder method possesses high potential as a material for aerospace and automobile.