Surface mechanical attrition treatment of commercially pure titanium by electromagnetic vibration

In the domain of incremental nanotechnology, surface mechanical attrition treatment has been seen as a significant technique to transform the surface of a material into a nano-crystalline layer, while preserving the surface chemistry unchanged. In the present study, a process was investigated to develop a nano-crystalline layer on the surface of titanium using an electromagnetic vibration system. The surface mechanical attrition treatment was carried out on commercially pure titanium for various durations (i. e., 30, 60, 90 and 120 min). The characterization showed that a maximum depth of 15 lm of nanocrystalline layer was obtained after 90 min of treatment. Further increase in time did not contribute towards development of any thicker layer. The crystallite size varied from 140 to 35 nm with increasing treatment durations. Tensile strength was increased from 645 MPa (untreated sample) to 711 MPa (120 min duration); however elongation was decreased by 43 %.