Application countermeasures of the manufacturing processes of titanium-steel composite plates

This study focuses on the application countermeasures of three kinds of manufacturing processes, namely Explosive Welding (EW), Explosive Welding and Hot Rolling (ER), Vacuum Rolling (VR) in order to further improve the technological level and provide support for the standardization production of titanium-steel composite plates. In this regard, the bonding properties of three kinds of titanium-steel composite plates were studied through microstructure observations and mechanical performance tests. Results showed that ER plate had nearly straight interface with unobvious undulations, while EW plate had wavy bonding interface and VR plate had straight clean interface. Moreover, EW plate, ER plate and VR plate had the diffusion layers of 6 mu m, 33.5 mu m and 21 mu m, respectively. It was also obtained that the mechanical properties of VR plates were the finest, whereas the worst for ER plates. Meanwhile, the interface of VR plates showed low toughness. Based on the analyses of bonding properties, application countermeasures were obtained in the manufacturing processes of titanium-steel composite plates. Firstly, it was the best for titanium-steel composite plates with the flyer plate thinner than 2 mm that to be manufactured by VR and could also manufacture Category 0 composite plate like EW. Additionally, ER could be the priority process to manufacture low-bonding strength titanium-steel composite plates for its relatively low process cost. Finally, large-size titanium-steel composite plates should be fabricated by VR or ER because of the surface enlargement under rolling.