In the present study, 98.6–99.5% dense in situ reinforced Ti6Al4V/TiB composites were manufactured with a newly developed approach based on hydrogen-assisted blended elemental powder metallurgy (BEPM). The approach includes the activation milling of titanium powder produced with hydrogenation-dehydrogenation (HDH-Ti powder) with finer TiB₂ additives, following blending with TiH₂ and master alloy (MA) powders, and final press-and-sinter operations. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations prove the formation of microstructures with improved density and homogeneous distribution of TiB reinforcements in a sintered Ti6Al4V matrix. Hardness and compressive tests validated the high mechanical characteristics of produced composites. The effect of preliminary milling time over 2–6 h and the ratio of hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated titanium powders used (TiH₂ vs. HDH Ti) on microstructure and mechanical properties were studied to further optimize the processing parameters. Test results indicate the above approach can be regarded as a promising route for the cost-effective manufacturing of Ti6Al4V/TiB composite with reduced porosity, tailored microstructure uniformity, acceptable impurity level and, hence, mechanical characteristics sufficient for practice applications.

The use of TiH₂ as initial powder can produce nearly full-density titanium with good mechanical properties. In this paper, compaction and sintering behaviors of TiH₂ and HDH Ti powders were investigated at various combinations of particle size distributions, pressures, and compact methods. Main attention was given to a manufacturing route that included cold isostatic pressing (CIP) is potentially capable of producing complicated shape components with homogeneous density distributions. The results showed the priority of using TiH₂ powder as a starting material in the CIP-and-sinter manufacturing route. Compared to materials processed from HDH Ti powder, the TiH₂-based materials showed lower porosity, more homogeneous distribution of fine spherical pores, and lower oxygen content, reaching a property balance that met requirements of CP Ti specifications. Advantage of CIP over uniaxial die pressing (UDP) was also shown and explained by specific features of the two compaction methods. The higher sintered density (99.1%) and acceptable oxygen content (0.18%) of the materials processed from TiH₂ powder of 0–45 µm provide mechanical characteristics (UTS 516.1 MPa, Elongation 26.8%) suitable for practical application.

Titanium is widely used in the fields of medicine, industry, and biological science due to its excellent properties. In addition, titanium powder metallurgy (PM) is widely used in production because it could considerably reduce the cost. The most critical step in PM is powder compaction. Thus, the compaction equation is highly important in the prediction and analysis of powder compaction process. In this paper, the experimental data of titanium hydride powder and hydrogenated-dehydrogenated titanium powder were fitted using different compaction equations, and all the equations could obtain a high fitting degree (R² > 0.99) and a small error. The linear compaction equation could distinguish the powder type and different particle size distribution forms in the same type of powder through fitting parameters. The nonlinear compaction fitting equation could also analyse the contribution of powder densification mechanism through parameter calculation.

Using TiH2 powder, Al-V alloy powder and V powder as raw materials, Ti-3Al-2.5V alloy was prepared by ordinary pressing and vacuum sintering, and the structure and mechanical properties of the alloy were studied. The results show that the powder metallurgy Ti-3Al-2.5V alloy is a near-α type alloy, with a relative density of about 98%. The data of tensile strength, yield strength and elongation are more prominent, and the key performance reaches forged Ti -3Al-2.5V alloy level.