Institute of Metals Division - Constitution of Titanium-Rich Ti-Cr-A1 Alloys at 1800° and 1400°F (Discussion page 1565)

The phase boundaries in the ternary system Ti-Cr-Al have been established at 1800° and 1400°F for alloys containing more than 60 pct Ti. The martensite transformation temperature has been measured for the titanium-rich alloys. THE studies of binary alloys of titanium with the transition elements which have been published so far1-0 ndicate clearly that the solubility of these elements is always much greater in the high temperature body-centered cubic form of titanium (ß phase) than in the low temperature hexagonal form. In this category of alloying elements are iron, nickel, chromium, manganese, vanadium, molybdenum, tungsten, columbium, and tantalum. Although studies of the nontransition elements have been rather limited, early work on titanium binary alloys'" has shown that most of them were not very soluble in the a form, with the exception of aluminum, for which the solubility in a is about 25 pct.13, 12 In addition to this large solubility in a, aluminum is also soluble in ß titanium to the extent of about 35 pct and the transformation temperature from ß to a is raised with aluminum content. This effect is also typical of aluminum, in contrast with that found for the transition elements which lower the ß to a transformation temperature. Therefore, it may be anticipated that tprnarv titanium alloys with aluminum and any one of the transition elements will constitute a class of ternary alloys having characteristic features absent in alloys involving two transition elements. Chromium was chosen as a typical transition element for the present study because ternary alloys of Ti-Al-Cr commercially produced have been found to possess very interesting physical properties (MST-3 pct A1-5 pct Cr of Mallory-Sharon).'" Binary Systems The binary systems Ti-A1 and Ti-Cr have been established recently by several investigators. The data used in this investigation were taken from the complete diagram of Bumps, Kessler, and Hansen." This diagram agrees quite well with earlier investigations." For the Ti-Cr system, the phase boundaries at 1800" and 1400°F were taken from refs. 6 and 7. The binary system Cr-A1 has been studied recently by Bradley." This system is rather complex and contains not less than seven intermediate phases. The present study was limited to the titanium corner of the ternary system (less than a total of 40 pct Cr plus Al) and none of the phases present in the Cr-A1 binary alloys were found in the ternary alloys investigated. Experimental Technique Microscopic observation and X-ray diffraction measurements were used to identify phases and de-