Bulk Texture Analysis in Powder Extruded Ti-6Al-4V alloy containing extra high oxygen

Over the last few decades, there has been a desire to expand the market for Ti-6Al-4V alloy from aerospace applications to more general applications. However, the high cost of Ti-6Al-4V produced by conventional ingot metallurgy is a barrier. Consequently, there is a lot of interest in the utilisation of powder metallurgy (PM) as an affordable alternative that can produce near-net shape components. One major concern associated with conventional PM techniques is the presence of post-processing residual porosity and relatively high interstitial impurities resulting from cheaper starting powders that can lead to inferior properties. Although the development of innovative thermo-mechanical powder consolidation processes, such as powder compact extrusion has provided a nearly fully dense material introduction of severe deformation during processing means significantly complex evolution of microstructure showing anisotropic behaviour. Hence analysing the microstructural variations and crystallographic texture of constituent phases (hcp α and bcc β) across cross-sections and along the length of extruded material is rather important and no such study has been performed for powder-extruded Ti-6Al-4V. The knowledge of texture is essential to achieve desirable mechanical properties through heat treatments despite the presence of high interstitial impurities in relative cheap final components that can be utilised in many non-critical ‘fit for purpose applications.