The development of porous titanium products using slip casting

An optimized titanium slurry was developed from 43 vol.% of titanium powder, 0.3 dw.% of dispersant, 0.8 dw.% of plasticizer and 0.8 dw.% of binder, mixed with a balance of distilled water, which produced a viscosity of 40 cP. It was then poured into a plaster mold to form compacts with a green density of 45%. Thermal debinding was carried out at 320 °C with an argon flow for 2 h, followed by vacuum sintering different samples at 1000 °C and 1200 °C for 0.5 h, respectively. The porous sintered compacts had satisfactory tensile strength with some plastic deformation. The increase in oxygen and carbon content during processing was minor. An X-ray diffraction pattern showed pure alpha titanium peaks without any indication of contamination from organic additives. The results from this investigation suggested that slip casting is a potentially low-cost, simple production route for manufacturing porous titanium products.