A method of incorporating silver and/or copper into a biomedical implant includes: providing an implant having an outer surface; depositing silver and/or copper onto the outer surface of the implant; diffusing the silver and/or copper into a subsurface zone adjacent the outer surface; and oxidizing or anodizing the implant after the diffusion step to form an oxidized or anodized layer that contains at least some amount of elemental silver, elemental copper or silver or copper ions or compounds.

Methods of hardening a case-nitrided metal article, methods of producing a hardened case-nitrided metal article, and hardened case-nitrided metal articles. The methods of hardening a case-nitrided metal article include heating the case-nitrided metal article to an aging temperature, maintaining the case-nitrided metal article at the aging temperature for an aging time, and cooling the case-nitrided metal article from the aging temperature. The methods of producing a hardened case-nitrided metal article include case-nitriding a metal article to produce a case-nitrided metal article and subsequently hardening the case-nitrided metal article. The hardened case-nitrided metal article comprises a body formed of a metal or a metal alloy, a surface surrounding the body, and a nitrided case layer formed in the body and extending inwardly from the surface of the body toward the core that includes a hardness that is greater than that of an otherwise equivalent case-nitrided metal article.

A method for manufacturing a metal component includes the following steps: a shell made of a titanium-based material is provided, the shell having a first surface and a second surface remote from the first surface; a covering layer made of a titanium fire-resistant material is produced by additive manufacturing on the shell such that the covering layer at least partially covers the first surface and/or the second surface; and, after the additive manufacturing step, the metal component is heat treated at a temperature of between 200° C. and 1000° C.

The present invention relates to the field of medical titanium alloy materials, and in particular, to a narrow-diameter high-strength implant-specific medical titanium alloy achieving immediate implant placement and a preparation method for the implant-specific medical titanium alloy. The medical titanium alloy is prepared from the following chemical components (by weight percentage), 14%-17% of Zr, 3.0%-10% of Cu, and the balance of Ti. The preparation method for the medical titanium alloy comprises: after cogging and forging and before rolling, performing heat preservation for 0.5-6 h at the temperature of 900-1200° C., and water cooling to the room temperature; and rolling at the temperature of 720-850° C., a strain rate being larger than 0.1 s-1, and a barstock obtained after rolling being used for subsequent implant processing. According to the narrow-diameter high-strength implant-specific medical titanium alloy achieving immediate implant placement provided in the present invention, immediate implant placement can be achieved without any surface treatment, and a firm combination of the implant and a bone tissue is achieved. According to the preparation method for the medical titanium alloy provided in the present invention, the implant having a narrow diameter (3.0-3.5 mm) can be prepared and is high in strength, and the purpose of firm implanting on a narrow teethridge missing a tooth is achieved.

An antimicrobial and adhesion-proof titanium tableware and a manufacturing method of the same are provided. The antimicrobial and adhesion-proof titanium tableware is made of a titanium substrate, and includes a contact portion and an oxidation layer structure. The contact portion is used for contacting foods, food ingredients, drinking water, beverages, or body parts of a user. The oxidation layer structure is formed on one part of a surface of the titanium substrate corresponding to the contact portion. The titanium substrate is made of titanium in α phase, and the oxidation layer structure is a titanium dioxide film in a rutile crystalline form. The oxidation layer structure has a roughened surface and an oxygen diffusion layer formed at an interface of the oxidation layer structure and the titanium substrate.

An alpha-beta titanium alloy and method of manufacture includes forming an alpha-beta product from a titanium alloy with a composition in weight percent (wt. %) including 5.7-7.5 wt. % Al, 0.8-4.2 wt. % Mo, 0.0-3.0 wt. % Nb, 0.1-3.5 Sn, 0.1-3.0 wt. % Zr, 0.1-0.35 wt. % Si, 0.05-0.25 wt. % O, with the remainder being Ti and incidental impurities, and then heat treating the alpha-beta product with a first heat treatment step including a first temperature and a first time, a second heat treatment step including a second temperature and a second time, and a third heat treatment step including a third temperature less than the second temperature and a third time greater than the second time.

A thermally stabilized fastener system and method is disclosed. The disclosed system/method integrates a fastener (FAS) incorporating a faster retention head (FRH), fastener retention body (FRB), and fastener retention tip (FRT) to couple a mechanical member stack (MMS) in a thermally stabilized fashion using a fastener retention receiver (FRR). The MMS includes a temperature compensating member (TCM), a first retention member (FRM), and an optional second retention member (SRM). The TCM is constructed using a tailored thermal expansion coefficient (TTC) that permits the TCM to compensate for the thermal expansion characteristics of the FAS, FRM, and SRM such that the force applied by the FRH and FRR portions of the FAS to the MMS is tailored to a specific temperature force profile (TFP) over changes in MMS/FAS temperature. The TCM may be selected with a TTC to achieve a uniform TFP over changes in MMS/FAS temperature.

A method of producing a case hardened workpiece of a Group IV metal including: placing a workpiece of a Group IV metal in a vessel, creating a low pressure environment in the vessel in which the pressure, pvac, is less than or equal to 10-5 bar, providing oxygen to the vessel to create a reactive atmosphere in the vessel, the reactive atmosphere comprising oxygen at a partial pressure, pO2, in the range of 10 5 bar to 0.01 bar, heating the workpiece to a hardening temperature in the range of 650° C. to 800° C. in the reactive atmosphere or before the reactive atmosphere is created, maintaining the workpiece in the reactive atmosphere at the hardening temperature for a reactive period of at least 5 hours, cooling the workpiece from the hardening temperature to ambient temperature in the reactive atmosphere or in an inert atmosphere.

A method of refining a microstructure of a titanium material can include providing a solid titanium material at a temperature below about 400° C. The titanium material can be heated under a hydrogen-containing atmosphere to a hydrogen charging temperature that is above a β transus temperature of the titanium material and below a melting temperature of the titanium material, and held at this temperature for a time sufficient to convert the titanium material to a substantially homogeneous β phase. The titanium material can be cooled under the hydrogen-containing atmosphere to a phase transformation temperature below the β transus temperature and above about 400° C., and held for a time to produce α phase regions. The titanium material can also be held under a substantially hydrogen-free atmosphere or vacuum at a dehydrogenation temperature below the β transus temperature and above the δ phase decomposition temperature to remove hydrogen from the titanium material.

A method of thermomechanically forming, for example forging, rolling, extruding or drawing, an article from a precursor thereof, is described. The method comprises: providing the precursor, for example an ingot, a forging stock, a forging, a bar, a billet or a plate, comprising, substantially comprising, essentially comprising and/or consisting of an α+β Ti alloy having a beta transus temperature β.sub.transus, wherein the precursor defines a set of portions including a first portion; and thermomechanically forming the article from the precursor by heating the first portion and deforming the heated first portion by a total true strain ε.sub.1, total, wherein the total true strain ε.sub.1, total is greater than a predetermined threshold true strain ε.sub.threshold; wherein thermomechanically forming the article from the precursor comprises i iterations of: (a) heating the first portion to a temperature T.sub.i during a time t.sub.i wherein the temperature T.sub.i is at most the beta transus temperature β.sub.transus; (b) deforming the heated first portion by a true strain ε.sub.1,i, wherein the true strain ε.sub.1,i is at most the predetermined threshold true strain ε.sub.threshold and (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) until the cumulative true strain ε.sub.1,cumulative=Σ.sub.iε1,ieu is the total true strain ε.sub.1, total wherein i is a natural number greater than or equal to 2.