Selection of Can and Insulating Materials for Controlled-Dwell Extrusion of Gamma-TiAl

Finite element method (FEM) simulation is carried out to analyze temperature distribution of the workpiece for the controlled-dwell extrusion of gamma-TiAl. We focused on the selection of can and insulating materials and concluded that silica fabric is a better insulating material than ZrO2 powders. 304SS, Ti6Al4V, 1Cr18Ni9Ti and pure Ti can be selected as can material if the dwell time and in-container time are well controlled. Thermo-mechanical coupled analysis is performed to investigate flow uniformity and temperature homogeneity for different can and insulating materials. Extrusion experiment was conducted and the results basically agree well with those of the simulation.