Abstract
The use of Ti6Al4V as a biomaterial has been limited due to the dissociation of V
and Al ions into the surrounding environment which can cause inflammations, cell damage and
toxicity. To prohibit these undesirable challenges, the addition of ZrO2 into Ti6Al4V was
proposed because ZrO2 is biocompatible, it has good wear and corrosion resistant properties, it
has low affinity to bacterial colonization and it has high fracture toughness.The aim of this
work is to determine the optimum powder synthesising parameters by Tubular mixer and ball
mill for fabrication of sintered composites . Powder mixtures were prepared by 49 rpm,72 rpm
and 74rpm for 2, 4 and 8 hours followed by spark plasma sintering at 1100 oC at heating rate of
100 oC/min for 10 min and pressure of 50 MPa.from the results obtained it was discovered that
Tubular mixing of 90 Vol% Ti6Al4V and 10 Vol% ZrO2 at 72 rpm and ball milling of 90
Vol% Ti6Al4V and 10 Vol% ZrO2 at 74rpm speed have proved to produce homogeneous
admixed powders, which can further produce fully dense SPS compacts with higher
microhardness values.