The Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of the Novel Low-Cost Ti-3Al-5Mo-4Cr-2Zr-1Fe Alloy

Abstract

In order to reduce the cost of titanium alloys, a novel low-cost Ti-3Al-5Mo-4Cr-2Zr-1Fe (Ti-35421) titanium alloy was developed. The influence of heat treatment on the microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties of the new alloy was investigated. The results showed that the microstructure of Ti-35421 alloy consists of a lamina primary α phase and a β phase after the solution treatment at the α + β region. After aging treatment, the secondary α phase precipitates in the β matrix. The precipitation of the secondary α phase is closely related to heat treatment parameters—the volume fraction and size of the secondary α phase increase when increasing the solution temperature or aging time. At the same solution temperature and aging time, the secondary α phase became coarser, and the fraction decreased with increasing aging temperature. When Ti-35421 alloy was solution-treated at the α + β region for 1 h with aging surpassing 8 h, the tensile strength, yield strength, elongation and reduction of the area were achieved in a range of 1172.7–1459.0 MPa, 1135.1–1355.5 MPa, 5.2–11.8%, and 7.5–32.5%, respectively. The novel low-cost Ti-35421 alloy maintains mechanical properties and reduces the cost of materials compared with Ti-3Al-5Mo-5V-4Cr-2Zr (Ti-B19) alloy.