Ductile TiAl alloy with a Widmanstätten lamellar structure formed by rapid heating

Instead of conventional grain-refinement treatments for improving the ductility of fully lamellar TiAl alloys, multiorientational, lamellar, subcolony refinement with good ductility has been achieved simply by using an electric-current pulse treatment. The microstructural refinement mechanism is attributed to the transformation on heating of γ laths in the prior large-grain lamellar structure to Widmanstätten α in several orientations, which on subsequent cooling forms lamellar structure colonies in multiple orientations. This kind of refined multiple-colony lamellar structure was found to enhance the ductility of the TiAl alloy.