The preparation of titanium niobium tantalum zirconium biomedical titanium alloys mainly adopts vacuum smelting method, due to the alloy by adding Nb, Ta, Zr refractory metal elements, its melting point, density is greater than the Ti element, and the characteristics of low plasticity deformation, difficulties, and using the vacuum smelting method will be unable to completely avoid in the process of preparation of alloy composition segregation, uneven and osteoporosis, defects such as shrinkage cavity, causes the material mechanics and wear-resisting corrosion resistance decline phenomenon; In order to improve the composition segregation and casting defects of the material, it is often necessary to remelting the alloy more than three times, which not only increases the cost, but also brings the material pollution problem. Titanium niobium tantalum-zirconium alloy prepared by vacuum smelting method not only has high manufacturing cost, but also the mechanical properties of the material cannot meet the ideal requirements in clinical application, especially in large-scale production, which hinders its practical application in clinical practice.
The problems in the preparation of niobium, tantalum and zirconium biomedical titanium alloy based on vacuum smelting method need to find new preparation methods. Powder sintering technology provides a new way to solve and improve the above problems. Discharge Plasma Sintering, Spark Plasma Sintering, SPS for short) is a new type of advanced special powder Sintering forming technology, compared with the traditional method of vacuum powder Sintering, the discharge Plasma Sintering method has litre cooling speed (more than 100 0 c/min), short Sintering time (from heating up to the end of the heat preservation in 15 min or so), high density (up to 99%), preparation, clean, etc. The preparation of Titanium-Niobium-Tantalum-Zirconiu biomedical titanium alloy by this method can overcome the deficiency of traditional vacuum smelting method, not only can improve the composition segregation and microstructure inhomogeneity of the alloy, but also can make the alloy obtain high density and low elastic modulus, so as to have excellent comprehensive properties.
By means of discharge plasma sintering, Titanium-Niobium-Tantalum-Zirconium biomedical titanium alloy was prepared, and the composition of Titanium-Niobium-Tantalum-Zirconium biomedical titanium alloy with uniform structure, high density and low elastic modulus was obtained, which can be used as human implantation and substitute material.
