Mechanical Properties of Titanium Diboride Sintered with Iron Aluminide Additive

Abstract

Titanium diboride was sintered at temperatures between 1573 and 1873 K by spark plasma sintering with the addition of FeAl. It was found that the grain growth of TiB₂ was suppressed by sintering with FeAl. A bending strength as high as 1000 MPa and a Vickers hardness of 2700 Hv were obtained for TiB₂ sintered at 1773 K with 10 mass% FeAl. The fracture toughness was estimated to be 12 MPa·m^1/2. On the other hand, considerable grain growth was observed for a specimen sintered at 1773 K without FeAl. The bending strength of the monolithic TiB₂ specimen sintered at 1773 K was 600 MPa and the Vickers hardness was 2200 Hv. These properties deteriorated when the sintering temperature was increased to 1873 K owing to the grain growth of TiB₂.

Fig. 7 Sintering temperature dependence of the bending strength of TiB₂ sintered with 0, 10 and 20 mass% FeAl.