Manufacturing optimisation of an original nanostructured (beta + gamma)-TiNbTa material

An original (beta + gamma)-TiNbTa material was manufactured by an optimised powder metallurgy treatment, based on a mechanical alloying (MA) synthesis, carried out at low energy, and a subsequently field assisted consolidation technique, the pulsed electric current sintering (PECS). The successful development of this (beta + gamma)-TiNbTa material was possible by the optimisation of the milling time (60 h) for the MA synthesis and the load and sintering temperature for the PECS (30 MPa and 1500 °C), as key parameters. Furthermore, the selected heating and cooling rates were 500 °C min−1 and free cooling, respectively, to help maintain the lowest particle size and to avoid the formation of a detrimental high stiffness, hexagonal (alpha)-Ti alloy. All these optimised experimental conditions enabled the production of a full densified (beta + gamma)-TiNbTa material, with partially nanostructured areas and two TiNbTa alloys, with a body centred cubic (beta) and a novel face-centred cubic (gamma) structures. The interesting microstructural characteristics gives the material high hardness and mechanical strength that, together with the known low elastic modulus for the beta-Ti alloys, makes them suitable for their use as potential biomaterials for bone replacement implants.