The present work introduces a novel extrusion with filler material to produce the high-performance TiBw/Ti-6Al-4V composite tube with a quasi-continuous reinforced structure. A simulation was adopted to study the effect of the filler material on the shape accuracy of the tubes. Based on the simulation results, the flow stress of the filler material was not the important factor, but the friction coefficient between the filler and TiBw/Ti-6Al-4V composite and the canning shape were critical to the tube precision. The microstructure and mechanical performance for the as-extruded TiBw/Ti-6Al-4V composite tubes were systematically investigated. After extrusion, the transverse section microstructure of the TiBw/Ti6Al4V composite tube remained quasi-continuous and the TiBw were rotated to align the extrusion direction. Moreover, the tensile strength and elongation reached 1240 MPa and 13.5%, resulting from dynamic recrystallization and whisker rotation.
Keywords: hot extrusion; mechanical performance; microstructure; titanium matrix composites; tube.