Ti6Al4V Superplastic Forming for the Production of an Aircraft Part

Titanium and its alloys have grown their importance in the automotive and aerospace industries becoming strategic materials; this is due to their mechanical properties that, perfectly, meet the needs of the above said industrial field. For example, they are characterized by a high strength vs. weight ratio that is directly related to fuel saving impacting on both economic and environmental aspects. A weakness point of these materials is linked to their workability that entails significant manufacturing costs. Taking into account these issues, it is easy to understand the reasons for the development of net shape technologies, like hot forming (HF) or superplastic forming (SPF) in order to reduce the price of titanium components. In the work here introduced, a cockpit section, known as "Pocket Support", was produced through SPF. More in detail, the influence that the strain rate can have on the quality of the final part was highlighted; for this reason, two different pressure-time curves were tested monitoring the accuracy and wall thinning of the realized parts. The experimental campaign was carried out using an ACB superplastic forming press located in the Somma Vesuviana DEMA plant. The dimension of the obtained components were checked through the structural light technique (Gray Code-Phase Shifting); in particular, a cloud of points was obtained and, subsequently, used to rebuild the actual surface of the Pocket Support. In this way, a comparison between the CAD model and the real part was possible. Moreover, the thickness distribution along a critical section was analyzed by means of a coordinate measuring machine.