Texture Evolution during Diffusional Heat Treatment from Roll-Bonded Ti/Ni Laminates to TiNi Shape Memory Alloy Sheets

Abstract

TiNi shape memory alloy thin sheets were produced from titanium and nickel metal sheets by a new processing consisting of repetitive roll-bonding and diffusional heat treatment. TiNi sheets after heat treatment at a relatively low temperature for a long time exhibited fairly isotropic and high shape-recoverable strain, because a near {111} B2-phase texture such as {223}<110> and {332}<113> was developed through reactive diffusion during heat treatment. In the early stage of reactive diffusion, intermetallic layers of Ti2Ni, TiNi and Ni3Ti were formed at once at the Ti/Ni interfaces of the roll-bonded laminate and then growth of a TiNi phase took place with the progress of interdiffusion. Texture of the final TiNi thin sheets, therefore, is derived from that of TiNi layers generated at the Ti/Ni interfaces, which is considered to have inherited rolling textures of Ni and Ti layers in the Ti/Ni laminate prior to reactive diffusion under orientation relationships on close-packed plane and direction between parent and product phases.