Microstructure of titanium on complex deformation paths: Comparison of ECAP, KOBO and HE techniques

In this work samples of commercial purity grade 2 titanium were severely deformed by three different extrusion techniques: equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), extrusion through oscillating die (KOBO), and hydrostatic extrusion (HE). Resulting microstructures and mechanical properties of processed titanium samples are studied and compared with regard to potential application as a material for dental implants. The obtained results demonstrate the effect of different strain paths, involved by three applied deformation methods, on microstructure refinement, mechanical properties and textures of the studied material. Heterogeneous microstructures with bimodal grain size distributions are observed for all deformation techniques in the examined material, however differences in their internal structures and grain boundary distributions point to different grain refinement mechanisms. The fraction of ultra-fine grains is the highest in titanium deformed by HE. Also the internal grain fragmentation is the most important after HE deformation. This leads to the best mechanical and microstructural properties obtained in this type of deformation. Consequently, the HE process seems to be very interesting for production of material for medical implants.