Attrition and vibratory milling of Cu-TiN

Mechanical alloying or high-energy ball milling has been used for many applications including the manufacture of oxide dispersion strengthening superalloys and, more recently, the production of amorphous powders. It is generally accepted that ball milling produces powder particles with a characteristic lamellar structure. Attrition and vibratory milling of Cu-3% TiN and Cu-25% TiN, respectively, was carried out. The results showed that a layered morphology occurred in the attrition milled powder specimen, but not in the vibratory milled sample. Massive agglomeration was observed in the attrition milled powder, resulting in particle sizes which were larger than the starting powder sizes. In the vibratory milled case, excellent powder particle refinement was found, and nanosize copper and titanium nitride particles were observed under TEM. In addition, consolidation of the vibratory milled powder did not result in much grain growth of the copper particles. The results are largely attributed to the high volume fraction of TiN particles which may have inhibited large-scale grain growth. 6 refs.