Abstract
A new surface finishing process for biomaterial titanium alloy products by wide-area electron beam irradiation is proposed. In the wide-area EB irradiation equipment, high energy density EB can be irradiated without concentrating the beam. Therefore, wide-area EB with a maximum diameter of 60mm can be used for instantaneous melting or evaporating metal surface. Experimental results made it clear that the surface roughness becomes smaller and the glossiness becomes higher with increasing energy density of beam. Under a proper irradiating condition, the surface roughness of titanium alloy machined with end mill could be decreased from lOumRz to less than lumRz in just a few minutes. Moreover, the corrosion resistance could be improved simultaneously. Therefore, wide-area EB irradiation method has a possibility of high efficient surface smoothing and surface modification process instead of hand finishing.
