A nanostructured monolithic titanium boride (TiB) material and methods of
forming such a material are disclosed and described. This material has a
room-temperature four-point flexural strength about three times that of
commercially available titanium diboride (TiB.sub.2). The achievement of
nanostructured internal microstructural arrangement having a network of
interconnected titanium monoboride whiskers affords a very high strength
to this material above some of the best ceramic materials available in
the market. The material contains a small amount of titanium, but it is
largely made of TiB phase with substantially no TiB.sub.2. The
nanostructured monolithic titanium boride material can be formed by high
temperature processing of a powder precursor having carefully selected
weight and size distributions of titanium and titanium diboride powders.
Potential applications of this material can include wear resistant
components such as die inserts for extrusion dies, nozzles, armor,
electrodes for metal refining etc. An important advantage of TiB over
other hard ceramics is that TiB can be cut by electro-discharge machining
(EDM) without difficulty, unlike most ceramics.