Two sintering methods of a pressureless sintering and a spark-plasma sintering are tested to densify the Fe-TiC composite powders which are fabricated by high-energy ball-milling. A powder mixture of Fe and TiC is prepared in a planetary ball mill at a rotation speed of 500 rpm for 1h. Pressureless sintering is performed at 1100, 1200 and 1300oC for 1-3 hours in a tube furnace under flowing argon gas atmosphere. Spark-plasma sintering is carried out under the following condition: sintering temperature of 1050oC, soaking time of 10 min, sintering pressure of 50 MPa, heating rate of 50oC, and in a vacuum of 0.1 Pa. The curves of shrinkage and its derivative (shrinkage rate) are obtained from the data stored automatically during sintering process. The densification behaviors are investigated from the observation of fracture surface and cross-section of the sintered compacts. The pressureless-sintered powder compacts show incomplete densification with a relative denstiy of 86.1% after sintering at 1300oC for 3h. Spark-plasma sintering at 1050oC for 10 min exhibits nearly complete densification of 98.6% relative density under the sintering pressure of 50 MPa.

Fe-TiC composite powders are fabricated by planetary ball mill processing. Two kinds of powder mixtures are prepared from the starting materials of (a) (Fe, TiC) powders and (b) (Fe, TiH2, Carbon) powders. Milling speed (300, 500 and 700 rpm) and time (1, 2, and 3 h) are varied. For (Fe, TiH2, Carbon) powders, an in situ reaction synthesis of TiC after the planetary ball mill processing is added to obtain a homogeneous distribution of ultrafine TiC particulates in Fe matrix. Powder characteristics such as particle size, size distribution, shape, and mixing homogeneity are investigated. In case of (Fe, TiC) powder many coarse TiC particulates with size of several μm are unevenly distributed in Fe-matrix. The composite powder prepared from (Fe, TiH2, C) powder mixture showed a homogeneous dispersion of ulatrafine TiC particulates.

Fe-TiC composite was fabricated from Fe and TiC powders by high-energy milling and subsequent spark- plasma sintering. The microstructure, particle size and phase of Fe-TiC composite powders were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction to evaluate the effect of milling conditions on the size and distribution of TiC particles in Fe matrix. TiC particle size decreased with milling time. The average TiC particle size of 38 nm was obtained after 60 minutes of milling at 1000 rpm. Prepared Fe-TiC powder mixture was densified by spark- plasma sintering. Sintered Fe-TiC compacts showed a relative density of 91.7~96.2%. The average TiC particle size of 150 nm was observed from the FE-SEM image. The microstructure, densification behavior, Vickers hardness, and frac- ture toughness of Fe-TiC sintered compact were investigated.

TiB2-reinforced iron matrix composite (Fe-TiB2) powder was in-situ fabricated from titanium hydride (TiH2) and iron boride (FeB) powders by the mechanical activation and a subsequent reaction. Phase formation of the composite powder was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphology and phase composition were observed and measured by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The results showed that TiB2 particles formed in nanoscale were uniformly distributed in Fe matrix. Fe2B phase existed due to an incomplete reaction of Ti and FeB. Effect of milling process and synthesis temperature on the formation of composite were discussed.