Part 3
Superplasticity
Superplasticity is a new field of research: the first observation were
made in 1912 and the serious results were obtained from 1962 (7).
The interet in superplastic alloy has been growing
tremendoulsly: the numbers of papers published since the 1960's keeps
increasing with new fields of interests such as superplastic ceramics.
The first published picture of a superplastically deformed sample was by
Jenkins in 1928. An elongation of 300% was observed, the material is
either a tin-lead alloy or a cadmium-zinc alloy.
The TSM group is about to investigate the use of spray forming for the
production of high strain superplastic aluminum alloys.
Spray forming has shown in previous studies (4) to
produce stable subgrain structures which enhance grain boudary sliding
therefore superplastic properties. The UDS process enables a precise
control of the deposit microstructure; and The rapid
solidification enables the microstructure to be fine and stable.
The TSM laboratory will investigate in the near future enhanced
superplasticity in aluminum alloys microalloyed with an element that forms
an intermetallic coumpound.
