Microstructural Characteristics of Ti-Al-Dy Alloy Produced by High Energy Ball Milling

In this study, the alloying of Ti, Al and Dy powders by high energy ball milling, and the spark plasma sintering (SPS) characteristics of as milled powders have been investigated based on the observation of microstructure. Pure Ti, 6wt% Al and 4wt% Dy powders were mixed and milled with zirconia balls at 600 ~ 1000 rpm for 3h in an Ar gas. The initial sizes of Ti, Al and Dy powders were approximately 20, 40, and 200 μm, respectively. With increasing the milling speed from 600 to 1000 rpm, the size of mixing powders reduced from 120 to 15 μm. On the other hand, from XRD results of powders milled at higher speeds than 700rpm, the peaks of Ti3Al and AlDy phases were identified, indicating the successful alloying. Therefore, the powders milled at 800 rpm have been employed for the SPS under the applied pressure of 50 MPa at 1373K for 15 min. In the SPSed sample, the Al3Dy and two ternary Ti-Al-Dy phases were newly detected, while the peak of AlDy phase disappeared. The SPSed Ti-6Al-4Dy alloy revealed high relative density and micro-hardness of approximately 99% and 950Hv, respectively