Effect of Ball on SPS Characteristics of Ti-Al-Nd Powders Prepared by High Energy Ball Milling

The effects of different types of balls on spark plasma sintering (SPS) characteristics of high energy ball milled Ti-48wt% Al-4wt% Nd powders were investigated. After ball milling with STS balls and zirconia balls at 800 rpm for 3 h in argon atmosphere, both powders showed shape factors of about 0.8, but their average powder sizes differed respectively at approximately 11 µm and 5 µm. From XRD results, only the peaks of pure Ti, Al and Nd were detected in both powders. The obtained Ti-Al-Nd powders were consolidated by SPS technique at 1373 K for 15 min under a pressure of 50 MPa in vacuum, resulting in high density over 99%. EDS and XRD analyses indicated the formation of binary phases such as TiAl3, TiAl, Ti3Al5, and NdAl3 after SPS in both cases of STS and zirconia balls, while the ternary Ti-Al-Nd phase was detected only in the case of zirconia balls. The size of second phases was slightly smaller in the case of zirconia balls. The microhardness of the sample was 790 Hv with zirconia balls and 540 Hv with STS balls.