Processes are provided for producing a titanium alloy material, such as Ti—Al alloys. In one embodiment, the process includes: heating an input mixture to a preheat temperature with the input mixture including aluminum, optionally, AlCl.sub.3, and, optionally ally, one or more alloying element halide; introducing TiCl.sub.4 to the input mixture at the first reaction temperature such that substantially all of the Ti.sup.4+ in the TiCl.sub.4 is reduced to Ti.sup.3+; thereafter, heating to a second reaction temperature such that substantially all of the Ti.sup.3+ is reduced to Ti.sup.2+ to form an intermediate mixture (e.g., a Ti.sup.2+ salt); and introducing the intermediate mixture into a reaction chamber at a disproportionation temperature reaction to form the titanium alloy material from the Ti.sup.2+ via a disproportionation reaction.

A method for densifying a material includes arranging the material in a cavity of a mold and applying pressure to the material in the mold. While applying pressure to the material in the mold, a magnetic field is applied to the material in the mold to cause the material to transform between a first allotrope phase and a second allotrope phase. Applying the magnetic field to the material includes magnetic cycling, which includes one or more iterations of adjusting the magnetic field to a first strength, and then adjusting the magnetic field to a second strength. The method includes determining a density of the material during the magnetic cycling and, responsive to determination that the determined density reaches a threshold density, stopping the magnetic cycling.

A method for densifying a material includes arranging the material in a cavity of a mold and applying pressure to the material in the mold. While applying pressure to the material in the mold, a magnetic field is applied to the material in the mold to cause the material to transform between a first allotrope phase and a second allotrope phase. Applying the magnetic field to the material includes magnetic cycling, which includes one or more iterations of adjusting the magnetic field to a first strength, and then adjusting the magnetic field to a second strength. The method includes determining a density of the material during the magnetic cycling and, responsive to determination that the determined density reaches a threshold density, stopping the magnetic cycling.

A method for manufacturing a porous metal body according to the present invention includes: a surface oxidizing step of heating a titanium-containing powder in an atmosphere containing oxygen at a temperature of 250° C. or more for 30 minutes or more to provide a surface-oxidized powder; and a sintering step of depositing the surface-oxidized powder in a dry process, and sintering the surface-oxidized powder by heating it in a reduced pressure atmosphere or an inert atmosphere at a temperature of 950° C. or more.

A spherical Ti-based powder and a manufacturing method therefor are provided. The spherical Ti-based powder has a 50% particle size (D50) of 1 to 250 μm in a cumulative particle size distribution based on volume, in which a total amount of oxygen and hydrogen is less than 3000 ppm by mass, an area defect rate in a cross-section of the spherical Ti-based powder is less than 0.100%, and an area circularity of the spherical Ti-based powder in a secondary projection image is 0.90 or more. The spherical Ti-based powder can be obtained by subjecting a pulverized Ti-based powder to a fusion and solidification treatment using a thermal plasma in which a flow rate of hydrogen gas as a working gas is adjusted to less than 0.3 l/min.

The present disclosure provides zirconium powder particles comprising pure zirconium powder particles with an oxide layer ranging from 0.05 to 5 microns in thickness and/or zirconium alloy powder particles with an oxide layer ranging from 0.05 to 5 microns in thickness. In some embodiments, the zirconium powder particles may be spherical particles, the zirconium powder particles may range from 5 microns to 125 microns in diameter, and/or the zirconium powder particles may have a median particle size ranging from 25 to 70 microns in diameter. The present disclosure further provides methods of producing medical implants or medical implant components by a process that comprises selectively applying energy to such zirconium powder particles to build the medical implants or the medical implant components. In some embodiments, the methods comprise repeatedly forming a layer of zirconium powder particles and irradiating the layer of zirconium powder particles with an energy source.

The invention relates to a method for the electrochemical polishing of metal surfaces by means of repeating pulse sequences, wherein at least one anodic pulse is provided, the current intensity of which rises continuously in the time curve up to a specifiable value. The invention further relates to the use of said method for components produced in 3-D and to a system therefor.

This invention discloses a boron-containing titanium-based composite powder for 3D printing, consisting of 0.5%-2% by weight of titanium diboride and 98%-99.5% by weight of titanium sponge. The invention further discloses a method of preparing such composite powder, where the element boron is introduced to the titanium powder through rapid solidification, which significantly improves the solid solubility of boron in Ti, enabling the introduction of part of the boron into the titanium matrix to form supersaturated solid solutions. The reinforcement phase TiB in the boron-containing titanium-based composite powder prepared herein can be precisely controlled in grain size ranging from the nanometer scale to the micrometer scale through temperature or energy density, thereby preparing the titanium-based composite materials with different sizes of reinforcement phases to meet different mechanical requirements.

Disclosed herein are embodiments of mechanically alloyed powder feedstock and methods for spheroidizing them using microwave plasma processing. The spheroidized powder can be used in metal injection molding processes, hot isostatic processing, and additive manufacturing. In some embodiments, mechanical milling, such as ball milling, can be used to prepare high entropy alloys for microwave plasma processing.

A low modulus corrosion-resistant alloy is disclosed, and comprises five principal elements, wherein the five principal elements are Zr, Nb, Ti, Mo, and Sn. Experimental data reveal that, samples of the low modulus corrosion-resistant alloy all include following characteristics: hardness of at least 250 HV, Young's modulus less than 100 GPa, yield strength greater than 600 MPa, and critical pitting potential greater than 1.3V. As a result, experimental data have proved that this low modulus corrosion-resistant alloy has a significant potential for application in the manufacture of biomedical articles including medical devices and surgical implants. In addition, this low modulus corrosion-resistant alloy is also suitable for application in the manufacture of various industrially-producible articles, including springs, coils, wires, clamps, fasteners, blades, valves, elastic sheets, spectacle frames, sports equipment, and other high-strength low-modulus corrosion-resistant structural materials.