Production of Ti-6Al-4V Strip by Direct Rolling of Blended Elemental Powder

A significant research effort within the CSIRO Light Metal Flagship is aimed at developing new processes for the manufacture of (semi-finished) titanium products based on a powder metallurgy approach. The main driver for considering alternative processing and consolidation techniques to conventional ingot metallurgy is improved techno-economics associated with a reduction in processing steps and increased productivity via rapid consolidation of parts. In this respect, CSIRO has developed a process to manufacture sheet products utilising direct powder rolling; the process consists of cold rolling the powder feedstock to a green strip, which is then rapidly heated and hot rolled to consolidate the material completely. The work reported here was an investigation into the feasibility of fabricating Ti-6Al-4V strip by a blended elemental powder metallurgy route. The development of microstructures occurring during the processing and heat treatment steps has been studied. The generic roles of some process, material and heat treatment variables on the tensile properties and homogeneity of the final material have been assessed and are discussed in this paper.