Evaluation of electrically-assisted vacuum diffusion bonding of a TiBw/TA15 composite by microstructural analysis and mechanical testing

Electrically-assisted diffusion bonding (EADB) of a TiBw/TA15 composite with a novel network architecture was studied under a vacuum degree of 3 × 10−3 Pa in this work. Traditional diffusion bonding (TDB) was also investigated to verify the electroplasticity effect. Characterization of the bonding interface revealed that the interface bonding ratio and shear strength increased with bonding time, and the maximum shear strength of the EADB sample could reach 786 MPa when bonded at 4.23 A/mm2 and 2 MPa for 60 min. However, when bonded in the same condition, the EADB sample achieved higher bonding quality than the TDB sample did. Moreover, the potential mechanism through which electropulsing promoted diffusion bonding was studied in detail. The findings provide ideas for EADB of titanium matrix composites.