Patent ID: 8431191

Claim:
A method for alloying a titanium surface of an electrically conductive object with a refractory metal to obtain an alloyed surface of titanium and refractory metal, said alloyed surface having an increasing gradient towards titanium into the internal of the object, said process comprising the steps: placing the object and a refractory metal halide in a reaction chamber of a furnace, heating the object in the reaction chamber at a target temperature over a first time period, cooling the reaction chamber over a second time period, and removing the object from the reaction chamber, wherein the refractory metal halide is TaCl5 and the tantalum is precipitated using the net reaction 4 TaCl5(s)+5 Ti(s)→4 Ta(0)+5 TiCl4(g), where Ta(0) indicates that tantalum is present in oxidation state zero.