Examination of superplastic forming combined with diffusion bonding for titanium: Perspective from experience

Superplastic forming (SPF) combined with diffusion bonding (DB) has been used successfully for the fabrication of titanium aerospace hardware. Many of these applications have been for military aircraft, whereby a complex built-up structure has been replaced with monolithic parts. Several methods for applying the two- and four-sheet titanium SPF/DB processes have been devised, including the welding of sheets prior to forming and the use of silk-screened stop-off (yttria) to prevent bonding where it is undesirable. Very little progress has been made in the past few years toward understanding and modeling the SPF/DB process using constitutive equations and data by laboratory testing. Concerns that engineers face in designing for fatigue life, acceptable design loads, and damage tolerance are currently being studied, but the database is very limited. This is a summary of past work found in the literature and forms the foundation for additional research. This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Superplasticity and Superplastic Forming sponsored by the Manufacturing Critical Sector at the ASM International AeroMat 2004 Conference and Exposition, June 8–9, 2004, in Seattle, WA. The symposium was organized by Daniel G. Sanders, The Boeing Company.