REVIEWECAP has emerged as an attractive technique in last two decades and is gaining as a potential route for industrial production. Though it is a well known the technique, for the sake of completeness a brief introduction about ECAP process is given.In the ECAP process a well lubricated billet is pressed in a die that contains two channels, equal in cross section, intersecting at an angle called die channel angle. The material is subjected to shear deformation at the intersection plane. Since the process is capable of maintaining the net dimensions of the work piece, repetitive extrusion is possible, provided that the material has sufficient ductility, to withstand heavy deformations. The multiple ECAP passes make it possible to rotate the billet around its longitudinal axis between the passes, creating different routes.Conventionally ECAP has been classified into four routes based on the rotation of billet between each passes with reference to its longitudinal axis as (i) Route A, no rotation (ii) Route B A , rotating 90 0 in opposite directions, (iii) Route B c , rotating 90 0 in the same direction and (iv) Route C, rotating 180 0 . Figure 1 schematically illustrates the four processing routes of ECAP.The shear planes in extrusion axis (X direction), Perpendicular axes (Y and Z direction) tend to rotate based on the channel angle and processing route and hence the properties tend to change accordingly. The shearing plane on the three directions and in four routes is schematically given in Fig. 2.Usually, the billets are rotated with reference to X axis only. The rotation of the samples in X plane is more effective as compared to Y and Z axis based on the shearing patterns which can be understood from Fig. 2.
ABSTRACTEqual Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) also called as Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is an emerging mechanical or thermo mechanical method for synthesis of bulk ultra fine grained or nano materials. The uniqueness of ECAP is that the fine grains are obtained without changing any of the dimensions of the sample. The grain refinement increases the strength of CP-Ti to the strength levels of Ti-6Al-4V, a commonly used material for bio implants. Though Ti-6Al-4V alloys satisfy the biomedical requirements, the Al and V are toxic to human tissue. ECAP is an attracting technique for strengthening commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) to a level of Ti-6Al-4V since CP-Ti has better compatibility for bio medical applications. Hence, the research is focused on ECAP of CPTi. This overview mainly focuses on the mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, fatigue resistance and the influence of external and internal parameters on the properties of ECAPed CP-Ti. It also highlights the methods employed for increasing the deformability of CP-Ti. Finally, the suitability of ECAP for industrial production is also discussed. The state of the art in this field is encouraging and showing positive signs of commercializing ECAP of CP-Ti in the near future.