Effect of Heat Treatments on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Low-Cost Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Produced by Thermomechanical Powder Consolidation Route

Abstract

This paper investigates the level of properties enhancement achievable by heat-treating Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced from a blended powder mixture using a thermomechanical powder consolidation route involving warm uniaxial pressing and vacuum sintering followed by extrusion at super transus temperature (1150 °C). The as-extruded material with a higher oxygen content of 0.55 wt.% was subjected to two different sub-transus annealing treatments: HT-A: 955 °C/1 h-furnace cooling and HT-B: 925 °C/4 h-cooling @ 50 °C/h to 760 °C-furnace cooling. Room temperature Charpy v-notch impact toughness tests and tensile tests were performed to ascertain the effect of microstructural changes during post-extrusion annealing treatments. After impact tests, analysis of microstructures and fracture surfaces of samples was carried out using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The as-extruded material displayed mean impact toughness of 4 J along with a yield strength of 956 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 1150 MPa, and an elongation to fracture of 2.4%. The annealing treatments gave a noticeable enhancement in the impact toughness (average values 5–6 J obtained) while maintaining a yield strength and ultimate tensile strength level of about 992 MPa and 1164–1181 MPa, respectively. Additionally, the level of change in ductility was limited for each sub-transus annealing treatment, and HT-A has given only a 30% increase compared to as-extruded material.