Rapid preparation of TiC reinforced Ti6Al4V based composites by carburizing method through spark plasma sintering technique

• A efficient method was proposed to prepare TiC reinforced Ti6Al4V based composites.
• A rapid way for carburizing titanium alloy by spark plasma sintering was proposed.
• Solved the interface bonding problem between TiC reinforcements and Ti6Al4V matrix.
• Revealed effects of TiC reinforcements on mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy.
• Revealed the failure mechanism of TiC reinforced Ti6Al4V based composites.

A rapid method, using woven carbon fiber cloth as carbon supplier, combining with spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique, was proposed to fabricate TiC reinforced Ti6Ai4V based composites. By this way, carburized layer with the thickness of 4 mm can be obtained within 20 min. Microstructure analysis reveals that the composites exhibit advantage of good interfaces between the uniformly distributed TiC precipitates and matrix. Investigations on mechanical properties show that compared with Ti6Al4V matrix alloy, the TiC reinforced Ti6Al4V based composites exhibits higher yield strength, higher ultimate compressive strength, and similar ductility under both quasi-static compression and dynamic compression. The failure mechanisms of the composites and its influence on mechanical properties were discussed.