THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF OXYGEN ON PROPERTIES OF BETA TITANIUM ALLOYS

The beta-titanium alloys are widely used in many applications (medicine, aerospace industry etc.) due to their superior properties, such as corrosion resistance, biocompatibility and high strength to weight ratio. One of the ways how to increase the strength of those alloys is the addition of oxygen. The oxygen can be present in various forms in the alloy – in a solid solution or in the form of oxides. In this work, the effect of two forms of oxygen (i.e., solid solution and dispersion particles) was studied. Two alloys, one arc melted with different oxygen additions and one prepared via powder metallurgy where the titanium powder was oxidized, were prepared. The microstructure and mechanical properties were studied. A significant increase in strength with increasing the oxygen content in the solid solution has been observed. However, the powder oxidation has almost no effect on a tensile strength probably due to quite large interparticle distances between titanium oxide particles.