Deoxidation of Titanium alloy using hydrogen

In this paper we present a simple and effective method to reduce the oxygen content of titanium alloys by using the mixture of hydrogen (H2)/Ar gases as the reactive atmosphere during the remelting process of titanium alloys. The experimental results show that the decrease of oxygen content of Ti64 alloy is related to the hydrogen fraction of the mixture gas and the melting time. When the hydrogen fraction is 10%, the best deoxidation takes place. The oxygen contents, in the titanium alloy, can be effectively reduced, leading to the microstructure of titanium alloy and the micro-hardness can be refined and decreased, respectively. Additionally, hydrogen absorbed in our process can be easily removed by vacuum heat treatment.