L. D. Hefti, The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA

Summary:

This paper will discuss some of the advances that have been made at Boeing Commercial Airplanes during the manufacture of superplastically formed (SPF) AA 5083 aluminum components for aircraft applications. This material is the lowest cost aluminum alloy that exhibits superplastic properties. Therefore, the use of 5083 would be beneficial to aircraft in forming complicated configurations. Even though this aluminum alloy is non-heat treatable and is therefore low strength, applications have been found on the Boeing Commercial fleet that provides lower cost hardware that, in some cases, is lighter weight. The aircraft applications for AA 5083 material are not primary structure and Design Engineers have been able to take advantage of the benefits of using SPF sheet metal components. Superplastically formed AA 5083 components have replaced aluminum castings, fiberglas assemblies and components fabricated by SPF from different aluminum alloys. Since AA 5083 is non-heat treatable, the cost of heat treating, quenching and aging is avoided. Also, there is no contour distortion to straighten due to the heat treating process. Therefore, the quality of the hardware being delivered to the customer is greatly improved.