Compressive property comparisons between laser engineered net shaping of in situ TIB_W-TMCs and CP-Ti materials

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are widely used in chemical, astronautical, and biomedical industries. However, their poor load endurance properties affect their fields of applications especially under severe loading conditions. To enhance these properties, TiBw reinforcement was synthesized by in situ chemical reaction between elemental Ti and boron. Strong interfacial bonding between TiBw reinforcement and Ti matrix was obtained due to the in situ chemical reaction. Owing to its capability of producing difficult-to-machine bulk composites with uniform properties, laser engineered net shaping (LENS) technique was utilized to fabricate TiBw reinforced Ti matrix bulk composites. Few researches have been reported on these three-dimensional metal based bulk composites by using LENS. In this work, effects of TiBw reinforcement and laser power on compressive properties were investigated. The microstructures of the fabricated parts were observed and analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy.