The most urgent problem of engineering and its advanced branch of aerospace engineering
is the efficient use of materials and increased service life. Creation of aircraft engines of
new generation requires the development of absolutely new technological processes for producing
articles characterized by increased reliability and service life providing high metal utilization.
In this respect, titanium alloys, due to their high specific strength and corrosion resistance, are
the most widely used structural materials, especially in such branches of engineering where
material savings play a dominating role, in particular, aircraft engine- and ship-building and
medicine. The spectrum of articles produced includes complex shape blades and discs for gas
turbine engines, flanges, hollow cylinders, etc. During exploitation the above-mentioned articles
are subjected to very high and low temperatures, very large structural loads and the influence of
aggressive media etc. The above stated tasks can be effectively solved by introducing advanced
highly efficient and low-waste technologies of metals working based on the use of the unique
phenomenon of superplasticity. The forging in superplastic conditions enables one to reduce
sharply the expenditures on costly alloys as well as to simplify the machining. At the same time,
the enhanced exploitation characteristics of the articles produced can be achieved.
The paper presents an experience of wide implementation of the technology for producing die
forgings out of titanium alloys. The application of the technology provides: Superplastic strain processing allows hollow fan blades to be produced from titanium alloys. The process efficiency is increased by decreasing the processing temperature from 0.7Tmeltimg to 0.45Tmeltimg due to the use of nanostructured semi-products. The labor intensity of the process of hollow blade production and its power consumption can be reduced by 40% while the structural strength of an article processed can be increased by 10-15%. |
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