Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of β-Titanium Ti-15Mo Alloy Produced by Combined Processing including ECAP-Conform and Drawing

At present, researchers pay great attention to the development of metastable β-titanium alloys. A task of current importance is the enhancement of their strength and fatigue properties. An efficient method for increasing the strength of such alloys could be severe plastic deformation. The object of this study was a medical metastable β-titanium alloy Ti-15Mo (ASTM F2066). The alloy in the (α + β) state was for the first time deformed by combined processing, including equal channel angular pressing-conform and drawing. Such processing enabled the production of long-length rods with a length of 1500 mm. The aim of the work was to study the effect of the combined processing on the alloy’s microstructure and mechanical properties. An ultrafine-grained structure with an average size of structural elements less than 100 nm was obtained. At the same time, high strength and ductility (σ(uts) = 1590 MPa, δ = 10%) were achieved, which led to a record increase in the endurance limit (σ(−1) = 710 MPa) under tension-compression terms.