A new medium for boriding of Ti6Al4V alloy for biomedical applications

Abstract

This study presents a low-cost and environmentally friendly medium for the pack boriding (boronizing) of a Ti6Al4V alloy. Titanium and its alloys are known to be highly reactive and to have extreme oxygen affinity. Therefore, boriding is performed under vacuum or in protective atmospheric conditions. This work evaluated the pack boriding heat treatments of a Ti6Al4V alloy under atmospheric conditions via the various boriding media used by previous researchers. In addition, a new pack boriding medium was developed by adding aluminum. Consequently, this study demonstrated that it is possible to obtain an undamaged titanium surface by applying solid-state boriding under atmospheric conditions. © IMechE 2016.