Abstract

Ti_5Si_3 intermetallics containing 0-6 wt% of Cu were made by reactive sintering (RS) under vacuum using elemental powder mixtures (Process 1), electro-pressure sintering (EPS) using RS'ed materials (Process2), and EPS using elemental powder mixtures (Process 3). Relatively low dense titanium silicides were gained by process 1, in which porosity decreased with increasing Cu content. For example, porosity changed from 42 to 19.4% with the increase in Cu content from 0 to 6 wt%, indicating that Cu is a useful sintering aid. The titanium silicides fabricated by Process 2 had a higher density than those by Process 1 at given composition, and porosity decreased with increasing Cu content. For example, porosity decreased from 38 to 6.8% with the change in Cu content from 0 to 6 wt%. A high dense titanium silicides were obtained by Process 3. In this Process, porosity decreased a little by Cu addition, and was almost insensitive to Cu content. Namely, about 9 or 7% of porosity was shown in 0 or 1-6 wt% Cu containing silicides, respectively. The hardeness increased by Cu addition, and was not changed markedly with Cu content for the silicides fabricated by Process 3. This tendency was considered to be resulted from porosity, hardening of grain interior by Cu addition, and softening of grain boundary by Cu-base segregates. All these results suggested that EPS using elemental powder mixtures (Process 3) is an effective processing method to achieve satisfactorily dense titanium silicides.