The effect of copper composition in the Ti-Cu powder mixed by conventional and mechanical alloying on the microstructure and hardness of Ti-Cu alloy through hot pressing-sintering

Ti-Cu alloy as a bone implant material has the properties of biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, low elastic modulus, anti-bacterial, has good strength and hardness. One of the implant blinding methods is metallurgy powder. However, this method still produces a high %pore area. Mixing Ti-Cu through mechanical alloying is a way to reduce pores because this process would produce a homogeneous and fine powder. Besides, the hot pressing-sintering (HP-S) method was introduced, which function is to deform powder at high temperatures so it would produce an excellent mechanical interlocking and a more compact green body. Variations of alloy composition, i. e. 1, 3, and 5wt% Cu that mixed conventional and mechanical alloying, then the powder was hot-pressed at a temperature (500 °C) with a 100 bar pressure. After that, the samples were sintered for 2 hours at 950°C. Test conducted to determine the powder size, %pore area, phase, and alloy hardness. %Pore area, the smallest grain size, and the highest hardness were found in the Ti-5wt% Cu alloy results from HP-S and through mechanical alloying, the values were 1.55%; 27.36 µm; and 456.78 HV.