Self-propagating high temperature combustion synthesis of TiB/Ti composites

Dense TiB/Ti composites were fabricated by Self-propagating High Temperature Synthesis connected with Pseudo Hot Isostatic Pressing (SHS/PHIP). Tads, Tc and combustion velocities of the TiB–xTi system decrease with increasing the amount of Ti. The synthesized TiB–Ti cermets mainly consisted of TiB and Ti phases, but TiB2 phase existed in some products with lower content of metal. Needle-like, rod-like or plate-like TiB grains formed in the microstructure of synthesized TiB–xTi composites. The size of the TiB grains decreased with an increasing amount of metal addition. The hardness and relative density of the synthesized materials are all beyond HRA82 and 94%, respectively. The introduction of Ti into TiB–xTi cermets resulted in a drastic increase in the bending strength, tensile strength, compression strength, fracture toughness and the maximum values were obtained with the addition of 40 wt.%Ti.