Analysis of bending strength of porous titanium processed by space holder method

Porous titanium specimens have been produced by means of the space holder method. Titanium grade 3 (TiCP3) has been used as material and ammonium bicarbonate as spacer. Process parameters (compaction pressure, metal grain size range and spacer volume) influence on porosity morphology and distribution and bending strength has been analysed. The results denote an important loss of strength when comparing samples sintered without and with spacer. On the other hand, a higher bending strength was observed in the porous samples with a smaller size of ammonium bicarbonate particles. Finally, the evolution of bending strength with the compaction pressure depends on the spacer volume, having a direct dependency for reduced amounts and inverse for higher contents.