A New Low-Cost Ultra-High Strength Steel for Navy Landing Gear Applications

QuesTek Innovations presents an update on Ferrium® M54™, a new low-cost ultra-high strength steel developed for Navy landing gear applications. The development of Ferrium M54 has been sponsored by ongoing programs administered by Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD. Typical Ferrium M54 properties include high strength (250 ksi yield strength and 294 ksi ultimate tensile strength), high fracture toughness (110 ksi•√in), and excellent stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance (K_ISCC greater than 30 ksi•√in at open circuit potential as measured by the ASTM F1624 rising step load method). Relative to incumbent alloys such as AMS 6532, reduced alloy content in the Ferrium M54 alloy results in significantly lower raw material costs.

Ferrium M54 is commercially-available from Latrobe Specialty Steel, and data from multiple recent production ingots will be presented including tensile tests, fracture toughness tests, and SCC resistance tests. Progress towards Aerospace Material Specification (AMS) alloy certification (expected in 2011) will be summarized. A review of recent efforts focusing on the use and adoption of Ferrium M54 for Navy platforms will also be presented.