Beta titanium alloys were developed for biomedical applications due to the combination of its mechanical properties including low elasticity modulus, high strength, fatigue resistance, good ductility and with excellent corrosion resistance. With this perspective a metastable beta titanium alloy Ti-12Mo-13Nb was developed with the replacement of both vanadium and aluminum from the traditional alloy Ti-6Al-4V. This paper presents the microstructure, mechanical properties of the Ti12Mo-13Nb hot swaged and aged at 500 o C for 24 h under high vacuum and then water quenched. The alloy structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Tensile tests were carried out at room temperature. The results show a microstructure consisting of a fine dispersed α phase in a β matrix and good mechanical properties including low elastic modulus. The results indicate that Ti-12Mo-13Nb alloy can be a promising alternative for biomedical application.

Mechanical properties of metastable β-Ti alloys are highly dependent on the final microstructure, which is controlled by the thermomechanical processing. These alloys are used for biomedical applications and require a high mechanical strength as well as a low Young’s modulus to avoid stress shielding. Previous work on the development of cold swaged Ti-10Mo-20Nb alloy showed that the best compromise strength and Young ́s modulus was obtained when the forming is followed by an aging heat treatment at 500 oC. In this work, Ti-10Mo-20Nb alloy was hot swaged and aged at 500 oC for 10 min, 4h and 24h. The microstructure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Mechanical characterization was based on Vickers microhardness tests and Young’s modulus measurements. Aging at 500 oC for 10 min after hot swaging resulted in a nearly 100% β phase microstructure while aging at 500°C for 4h or 24h led to a bimodal microstructure consisting on α precipitates dispersed in the β matrix. The higher hardness to Young’s modulus ratio was obtained for the sample aged at 500 °C for 4h. This value was higher than those obtained for the Ti-6Al-4V alloy and commercially pure Ti.

Billets of an Al 7075-T651 alloy were processed by two passes of equal channel angular pressing, ECAP, by following route A. First pass was performed at 180°C and the second one in the temperatures 130 and 180°C. The resulting microstructures were characterized by optical microscopy, OM, and scanning electron microscopy, SEM. Also, material macroscopic mechanical properties were evaluated by performing uniaxial compression and Vickers microhardness tests. After the second pass, it was not verified a noticeable grain refinement. After second pass at 130ºC, the samples presented higher mechanical strength than observed after their processing at 180°C and the second pass resulted in a decrease in the mechanical properties compared to the deformation by one pass at 180°C.