JP2005320570A - alpha-beta TITANIUM ALLOY WITH EXCELLENT MACHINABILITY - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an α-β titanium alloy having excellent machinability which can be stably manufactured without using REM and P, both liable to be affected in a manufacturing process. <P>SOLUTION: The titanium alloy with excellent machinability is an α-β titanium alloy composed of α-phase and β-phase, and the area ratio of an α-phase having ≤5μm average circle-equivalent diameter and ≥3 average aspect ratio in the structure is controlled to ≤40%. By providing a composition consisting of, by mass, 2.0 to 7.0% Al, 0 to 0.25% C, 2.0 to 10%, in total, of one or more kinds among ≤5.0% V, ≤6.0% Cr, ≤2.0% Fe and ≤3.0% Mo and the balance Ti with inevitable impurities, the titanium alloy excellent in a balance between strength and ductility can be obtained. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an α-β type titanium alloy having excellent machinability.

  α-β type titanium alloy is to adjust properties such as strength, ductility, fracture toughness and fatigue strength by coexisting α phase with hexagonal HCP structure and β phase with body centered cubic BCC structure. However, it is widely used as a material for machine structural parts. In particular, automotive parts such as connecting rods, intake / exhaust valves, suspension springs, and mufflers are promising to use titanium alloys from the viewpoint of weight reduction and fuel efficiency improvement. However, due to the characteristics of titanium, machinability is poor, and improvement of machinability is desired.

As a titanium alloy with improved machinability, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-99764 (Patent Document 1) discloses rare earth elements (REM) such as Sc and Y and S, Se, Te. A titanium alloy for connecting rods that has improved machinability while suppressing deterioration of toughness and ductility by forming a granular compound by compounding elements such as JP-B-6-53902 (patent) Reference 2) describes a free-cutting titanium alloy to which B is added in order to improve machinability by adding REM and improve hot workability, and patent 2626344 (Patent Document 3) describes a free-cutting component. As P, S, P and Ni, P, S, Ni, etc. are added, and the machinability is reduced and the inclusions are refined to improve the free machinability, while reducing the hot workability and fatigue strength. Suppressed free-cutting titanium alloy It has been mounting.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-99764 Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-53902 Japanese Patent No. 2626344

However, the method of improving the machinability with the REM compound or the P compound first increases the component cost and is easily influenced by the temperature and cooling rate in the melting-forging process. Strict management is necessary in the process, and there is a problem that variation varies depending on the material shape and size.
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and α-β excellent in machinability that can be stably manufactured without using a special element that is easily affected by a manufacturing process such as REM or P. An object is to provide a titanium alloy.

  The microstructure of the annealed material of the α-β type titanium alloy is usually formed from three phases: a primary α phase, a secondary α phase, and a residual β phase. The present inventor paid attention to the morphology of these phases, and machinability depends strongly on the aspect ratio of the secondary α phase, and when the fine secondary α phase is formed in a needle shape (large aspect ratio), the matrix (primary Fracture toughness of parts other than the α phase, that is, β phase and secondary α phase) is increased and resistance during cutting is increased, while strength and ductility are hardly affected by the aspect ratio of the secondary α phase. I found out. The present invention has succeeded in dramatically improving machinability without impairing strength and ductility by suppressing the formation of a secondary α phase having high fracture toughness.

  That is, the titanium alloy having excellent machinability according to the present invention is an α-β type titanium alloy formed of an α phase and a β phase, and has an average equivalent circle diameter in a structure (α phase and β phase). The area ratio of the α phase having an average aspect ratio of 3 or more and 5 μm or less is 40% or less.

  In the α-β type titanium alloy, the alloy components include Al: 2.0 to 7.0%, C: 0 to 0.25%, and V: 5.0% or less, Cr: 6. It is preferable to contain 2.0 to 10% in total of one or more of 0% or less, Fe: 2.0% or less, Mo: 3.0% or less, and the balance Ti and inevitable impurities. By using such a component, it is possible to provide excellent mechanical properties with a high strength of 740 MPa or more and an elongation of 10% or more. The alloy component further includes Si: 1.0% or less, or further contains one or two of Zr: 5.0% or less and Sn: 5.0% or less in total of 6.0% or less. Can do.

  In the α-β type titanium alloy of the present invention, the area ratio of the acicular secondary α phase having an average equivalent circle diameter of 5 μm or less and an average aspect ratio of 3 or more and high fracture toughness is suppressed to 40% or less. The machinability can be remarkably improved with almost no loss of strength and ductility.

Hereinafter, the structure of the α-β type titanium alloy of the present invention will be described in detail.
The α-β type titanium alloy of the present invention is not particularly limited in composition as long as the structure is formed of an α phase and a β phase, but the secondary α phase existing in the structure (α phase and β phase) is not limited. The area ratio of needle-like objects having an aspect ratio of 3 or more is limited to 40% or less, preferably 35% or less.

  The secondary α phase is usually generated from the β phase during cooling from the annealing temperature and is as fine as an average equivalent circle diameter of 5 μm or less. When the secondary α phase has a needle-like shape with an aspect ratio of 3 or more, the secondary α phase has an effect of increasing the fracture toughness of the matrix (portion other than the primary α phase). On the other hand, a primary α phase having an average equivalent circle diameter of more than 5 μm or a secondary α phase having an aspect ratio of less than 3 does not significantly affect the fracture toughness of the matrix. When the secondary α phase having an aspect ratio of 3 or more exceeds 40% in the structure, the fracture toughness of the matrix becomes remarkably high, and the machinability deteriorates rapidly. Therefore, in the present invention, the area ratio of the secondary α phase having an aspect ratio of 3 or more (having an average equivalent circle diameter of 5 μm or less) is set to 40% or less, preferably 35% or less. The strength / ductility level is hardly affected even if the aspect ratio of the secondary α phase changes. For this reason, if the α-β type titanium alloy has the same component and α-β type constituent fraction, the amount of the secondary α phase having an aspect ratio of 3 or more is suppressed to 40% or less.・ Machinability can be dramatically improved without substantially impairing ductility.

  As described above, in the present invention, by suppressing the amount of the secondary α phase having an aspect ratio of 3 or more to 40% or less, the machinability can be dramatically improved regardless of the titanium alloy component. Here, an embodiment of an α-β type titanium alloy having an excellent balance between strength and ductility will be further described.

  This α-β type titanium alloy is mass%, includes Al: 2.0 to 7.0%, C: 0 to 0.25%, and V: 5.0% or less, Cr: 6.0% Hereinafter, Fe: 2.0% or less, Mo: 3.0% or less, including a total of 2.0 to 10%, the balance consisting of Ti and unavoidable impurities, tensile strength (TS) is 740 MPa or more, elongation (El) is 10% or more, other than that, yield strength (YS) is 600 MPa or more and drawing (Ra) is 30% or more. It is a suitable material. Hereinafter, the reason for component limitation will be described.

Al: 2.0 to 7.0%, C: 0 to 0.25%
Al and C are α-stabilizing elements, and Al is added as an essential component and C is added as a selective element in order to generate an α-phase. If the Al content is less than 2.0%, the α-phase is generated too little, and sufficient strength is not exhibited, so that the target TS and YS cannot be satisfied. For this reason, the lower limit of Al is set to 2.0%, preferably 2.2%. On the other hand, if the Al amount exceeds 7.0% and becomes excessive, the ductility deteriorates and El becomes lower than the target value. For this reason, the upper limit of Al is set to 7.0%, preferably 6.0%. C also contributes to the improvement of strength, but if added over 0.25%, ductility deteriorates and El and Ra become below the target values. For this reason, the upper limit of the C amount is set to 0.25%, preferably 0.20%.

V: 5.0% or less, Cr: 6.0% or less, Fe: 2.0% or less, Mo: 3.0% or less, or one or two or more of 2.0 to 10% in total
These elements are β-stabilizing elements, and are added in a total amount of 2.0% or more, preferably 3.0% or more as an essential component for generating a β phase. These elements also have the effect of improving the strength, and if they are added in excess of the upper limit of each element or added in a total amount exceeding 10%, the deterioration of El is caused. In particular, when the amount of Fe becomes excessive, Ra also decreases. For this reason, the upper limit of each element is prescribed as described above, and the upper limit of the total amount is 10%.

In addition to the above basic elements, the balance is composed of the balance Ti and inevitable impurities. In order to further improve the strength, (1) Si: 1.0% or less, (2) Zr: 5.0% Hereinafter, elements selected from each group of Sn: 5.0% or less and total of 6.0% or less can be contained alone or in combination.
When Si exceeds 1.0% and Zr and Sn each alone or in total exceeds 6.0%, the ductility deteriorates and the target level El cannot be obtained. For this reason, the upper limit of each element of Si, Zr, and Sn and the total amount of Zr and Sn are regulated as described above.

The titanium alloy of the above embodiment is annealed after subjecting the slab to hot forging according to a conventional method, then subjecting it to a heat treatment and processing into a target shape. That is, after hot forging just above the β transformation temperature, a heat treatment such as hot rolling is performed in the β phase or β-α two-phase region, and subsequently or once cooled, the α-β two-phase region (650 Annealing is performed at a temperature of about ˜870 ° C. for about 15 to 120 minutes. The amount of α phase and crystal grain size are adjusted by this annealing.
The cooling rate after annealing is important in the present invention. Although conventionally air-cooled (about 0.5 to 2 ° C./sec) after annealing, in the present invention, water is cooled from the α-β two-phase region at the time of annealing and cooled at a cooling rate of 5 ° C./sec or more. This reduces the aspect ratio of the secondary α phase generated in the cooling process to less than 3, and suppresses the aspect ratio of 3 or more to 40% or less. Alternatively, after the annealing (primary annealing), after air cooling as usual, the needle-shaped secondary α phase once generated is reheated (re-heated) for about 15 to 150 minutes at the primary annealing temperature +20 to 50 ° C. Annealing is performed to spheroidize the acicular secondary α-phase, and those having an aspect ratio of 3 or more are reduced to 40% or less.

  Hereinafter, although the example of the α-β type titanium alloy of the present invention will be described more specifically, the present invention is not construed as being limited by the example.

  Titanium alloys of various components shown in Table 1 below were melted in vacuum to produce about 2 kg of ingots. This ingot is heated to 1200 ° C. and hot forged, and after cooling, it is heated again to 930 ° C. to hot forge into a rectangular parallelepiped shape (cross section 30 mm square) and held at the annealing temperature shown in Table 2 for about 60 minutes. After cooling at the cooling rate shown in the table, some samples were re-annealed (maintened at primary annealing temperature + 30 ° C. for about 60 minutes) and then air-cooled.

  From the samples thus obtained, three tissue observation specimens were collected from each of the ¼ and ½ thickness portions. A tissue observation sample was prepared using the above-mentioned six structure observation specimens, and the equivalent circle diameter, area, and aspect ratio were determined for each crystal grain of the α phase, and the average area ratio of all α phases and the average equivalent circle diameter were 5 μm. Below, the average area ratio of the α phase (target α phase) having an aspect ratio of 3 or more was determined. For the tissue observation sample, after wet emery polishing of the test piece, the observation surface was buffed to a mirror surface using S-OPS (mixed liquid of silica, hydrogen peroxide, and ammonia), and then a corrosive liquid (water: nitric acid: Etching was performed with hydrofluoric acid = 80: 15: 1). The tissue quantification method uses a scanning electron microscope to photograph 10 fields of photographs of 2000 times for each tissue observation sample, and using commercially available image analysis software (such as Image-Pro), α The equivalent circle diameter, area ratio, and aspect ratio of the phase crystal grains were determined. The aspect ratio was determined by the major axis / minor axis of the α phase crystal grains. These measurement results are also shown in Table 2.

  Further, three tensile test pieces and machinability test pieces were sampled from the respective parts, and tensile tests were performed using the tensile test pieces to measure mechanical properties such as TS and El. Further, a drilling test was performed using the machinability test piece, and the machinability was evaluated by the number of drill holes (depth: 9 mm) until the drill broke. The tool used was Mitsubishi Materials Carbide (TiAlN coated VC-SSS) 3φ, the cutting speed was 60 m / min, the feed speed was 0.24 mm / rev, and lubricated with water-soluble cutting oil. These measurement results (average values) are shown in Table 2.

  From Table 2, invention examples having an average equivalent circle diameter of 5 μm or less and an α phase (target α phase) having an aspect ratio of 3 or more of 40% or less are generally excellent in machinability. Moreover, in the examples (sample Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6-11, 13-21) satisfying the specific components defined in claims 2 to 4 among the inventive examples, the machinability is excellent and the TS is 740 MPa. As mentioned above, El is 10% or more, and it has favorable intensity | strength and ductility. On the other hand, Sample No. 22 is an example of an invention particularly aimed at high ductility, and Sample Nos. 17 to 22 are examples of an invention especially aimed at high strength, and have the expected mechanical properties and excellent machinability. Has been obtained.

Claims (4)

  An α-β type titanium alloy formed by an α phase and a β phase, wherein the average equivalent circle diameter in the structure is 5 μm or less and the area ratio of the α phase having an average aspect ratio of 3 or more is 40% or less. Α-β type titanium alloy with excellent machinability.   In mass%, Al: 2.0 to 7.0%, C: 0 to 0.25%, V: 5.0% or less, Cr: 6.0% or less, Fe: 2.0% or less Mo: The α-β type titanium alloy according to claim 1, comprising 2.0 to 10% in total of one or more of 3.0% or less, and comprising the balance Ti and inevitable impurities.   Furthermore, the α-β type titanium alloy according to claim 2 containing Si: 1.0% or less.   The α-β type titanium alloy according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising 6.0% or less of one or two of Zr: 5.0% or less and Sn: 5.0% or less in total.