Material Property Correlation to Manufacturing Monitor Responses

Historically, during an assembly process, press force was used to determine whether or not a titanium insert was over pressed into a platinum seat. Over time the press force became more varied and, as a whole, increased. Microhardness testing, metallography, energy backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and other materials analyses were performed on both “old” and “new” samples to try to correlate material properties of the platinum seat with a high or low press force. After initial testing, only a slight difference in hardness and a wide range of grain structures and orientations were observed. None appeared correlated with press force. An annealing process was tested to determine if a more uniform grain structure would provide more consistent press forces. Initial testing on annealed samples shows signs that press force is stabilizing, however sample size is low due to the cost of platinum.