T. A. Witulski, G. T. Terlinde, Otto Fuchs KG, Meinerzhagen, Germany; M. Knuewer, Airbus Deutschland, Bremen, Germany
Considering the high material and machining cost of titanium alloys the development of a near net shape forging technology for titanium alloys is very attractive since it allows reducing the cost both on input weight and on machining.
Near net shape forgings can be produced by isothermal forging but this leads to high costs for the dies and very long processing times due to the low strain rates necessary to reduce the flow stresses during forging. An economic alternative to isothermal forging is beta forging. In this process the flow stress is significantly reduced by processing the material above the beta transus temperature which results in low forging forces and a good die filling behaviour.
The process has been qualified on Airbus A340 roller tracks and subsequently extended to the serial production of roller tracks for the A380 and several forgings for the A400M military transport plane.
Summary: The presentation will describe the development and the possible range of applications for low cost near net shape forgings from Ti-6-4 and it will present the properties achieved.
