A Novel Method to Produce Harmonic Structured Ti with Excellent Compressive Properties

The present study deals with the development of a harmonic structured commercially pure Ti using a novel and newly designed press-milling method to surface-deform the Ti powder particles and subsequent sintering. The harmonic structure is a bimodal distribution of fine and coarse grains where a continuous network of fine grains (shell) surrounds discrete clusters of coarse grains (core). A harmonic structured Ti featuring a shell with an average grain size of ~ 4.3 μm and a core with an average grain size of ~ 12 μm is obtained. The HCP crystal structure in the XRD patterns indicates the absence of any phase transformation due to press-milling. The hardness of the shell region improves ~ 2.5 times that of core regions. The compression studies also show an improved combination of strength and ductility in the harmonic structured Ti.