Fabrication of an Ultra-Fine Grained Pure Titanium with High Strength and Good Ductility via ECAP plus Cold Rolling

Microstructure evolutions and mechanical properties of a commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti, grade 2) during multi-pass rotary-die equal-channel angular pressing (RD-ECAP) and cold rolling (CR) were systematically investigated in this work, to achieve comprehensive property for faster industrial applications. The obtained results showed that the grain size of CP-Ti decreased from 80 μm of as-received stage to 500 nm and 310 nm after four passes and eight passes of ECAP, respectively. Moreover, abundant dislocations were observed in ECAP samples. After subsequent cold rolling, the grain size of ECAPed CP-Ti was further refined to 120 nm and 90 nm, suggesting a good refining effect by combination of ECAP and CR. XRD (X-ray diffractometer) analysis and TEM (transmission electron microscope) observations indicated that the dislocation density increased remarkably after subsequent CR processing. Room temperature tensile tests showed that CP-Ti after ECAP + CR exhibited the best combination of strength and ductility, with ultimate tensile strength and fracture strain reaching 920 MPa and 20%. The high strength of this deformed CP-Ti originated mainly from refined grains and high density of dislocations, while the good ductility could be attributed to the improved homogeneity of UFG (ultra-fine grained) microstructure. Thus, a high strength and ductility ultra-fine grained CP-Ti was successfully prepared via ECAP plus CR.