The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of powder shape and densification mechanism on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V components. BE powders are uniaxially and isostatically pressed, and PA ones are injection molded because of their high strengths. The isostatically compacted samples exhibit a density of 80%, which is higher than those of other samples, because hydrostatic compression can lead to higher strain hardening. Owing to the higher green density, the density of BE-CS (97%) is found to be as high as that of other samples (BE-DS (95%) and P-S (94%)). Furthermore, we have found that BE powders can be consolidated by sintering densification and chemical homogenization, whereas PA ones can be consolidated only by simple densification. After sintering, BE-CS and P-S are hot isostatically pressed and BE-DS is hot forged to remove residual pores in the sintered samples. Apparent microstructural evolution is not observed in BE-CSH and P-SH. Moreover, BE-DSF exhibits significantly fine grains and high density of low-angle grain boundaries. Thus, these microstructures provide Ti-6Al-4V components with enhanced mechanical properties (tensile strength of 1179 MPa).

This paper presents a study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of commercial high-hardness armor (HHA) steels tempered at different temperatures. Although the as-received specimens of all the steels exhibit a tempered martensite structure with lath type morphology, the A steel, which has the smallest carbon content, had the lowest hardness due to reduced solid solution hardening and larger lath thickness, irrespective of tempering conditions. As the tempering temperature increases, the hardness of the steels steadily decreases because dislocation density decreases and the lath thickness of martensite increases due to recovery and over-aging effects. When the variations in hardness plotted as a function of tempering temperature are compared with the hardness of the as-received specimens, it seems that the B steel, which has the highest yield and tensile strengths, is fabricated by quenching, while the other steels are fabricated by quenching and tempering. On the other hand, the impact properties of the steels are affected by specimen orientation and test temperature as well as microstructure. Based on these results, the effect of tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of commercial high-hardness armor steels is discussed.

The resistance of metallic materials to ballistic penetration generally depends on a number of parameters related to projectile, impact, and armor plate. Recently, armor materials have been required to have various properties such as hardness, strength, and impact toughness in order to maintain an excellent ballistic resistance even after impact. In the present study, the influence of tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of an ARMOX 500T armor steel plate was investigated and then compared with those of S45C and SCM440 steels. As the tempering temperature increased, the hardness and strength gradually decreased, whereas the ductility and impact toughness clearly increased because the hardness, tensile, and impact properties were affected by the microstructural evolution and precipitation occurring during tempering. On the other hand, temper embrittlement appeared at tempering temperatures of 300 to 400 °C for the impact specimens tested at low temperature.

The effects of processing parameters on the flow behavior and microstructures were investigated in hotcompression of powder metallurgy (P/M) Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The alloy was fabricated by a blended elemental (B/E)approach and it exhibited lamellar α+β microstructure. The hot compression tests were performed in the range of tem-perature 800-1000℃ with 50℃ intervals, strain rate 10−4-10 s−1, and strain up to 0.5. At 800-950℃, continuous flowsoftening after a peak stress was observed with strain rates lower than 0.1 s−1. At strain rates higher than 1 s−1, rapiddrop in flow stress with strain hardening or broad oscillations was recorded. The processing map of P/M Ti-6Al-4V wasdesigned based on the compression test and revealed the peak efficiency at 850℃ and 0.001 s−1. As the processing tem-perature increased, the volume fraction of β phase was increased. In addition, below 950℃, the globularization of phaseat the slower strain rate and kinking microstructures were found. Based on these data, the preferred working conditionof the alloy may be in the range of 850-950℃ and strain rate of 0.001-0.01 s−1.