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Article: Friction stir processing for superplasticity; friction stir processing for superplasticity has the potential to expand the domain of superplastic forming to several new enabling concepts, such as selective superplasticity, thick sheet superplasticity, and superplastic forging.
- Article from:
- Advanced Materials & Processes
- Article date:
- February 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 ASM International. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Superplastic forming is a process in which titanium or aluminum sheet or plate is heated to a temperature at which it becomes soft enough to be formed into sharp curves and complex shapes without cracking. Its most attractive feature is the ability to create cost-effective unitized structures. While it is considered a critical technology for unitized structures, its application is limited to sheet metal forming of aerospace components for three primary reasons.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
First, the starting material is limited to sheets that are less than 3 mm thick because of the thermo-mechanical processing needed to produce fine grain size, a prerequisite for ...