Voids formation in TMC processed by fibre coating

Abstract Volume shrinking effects of titanium matrix composites (TMC) processed by fibre coating with magnetron sputtering were observed during annealing above 800 °C [J. Compos. Technol. Res. 22 (2000) 12]. In the present communication, void formation in TMC processed by this method is investigated using analytical TEM. The voids have a diameter of a few 10 nm. Some of the voids contain Argon. It is concluded that voids formed during processing coagulated during heat treatment. This could be an explanation of the shrinking effect of composites processed by fibre coating.