Analytical and Experimental Investigations on Influential Parameters of Superplastic Forming of Titanium Based Workpieces

Superplastic fonning is a viable method for shaping supperallosis includingtitanium based materials which are otherwise awkward to shape. furthereffort is, however, required to commercialize this process and introduce itto metal forming enterprises. special facilities capable of providing controllableforming environment are needed for implementing this process. a hotisostatic/isothermal pressing machine possessing such a characteristic is aneffective candidate for this purpose. hot isostatic pressing has vastly been employedfor diffusion bonding, powder metallurgy and investment casting, whileits application to bulk- and sheet-metal forming needs far more investigation.careful selection of processing parameters such as gas pressure, strain rate,temperature and process time is vitally important for superplastic forming oftitanium based uiorkpieces. in an attempt to advance the superplasiic formingtechnology towards achieving a feasible process, the authors developed a lowprice hot isothermal pressing device with the aid of which numerous formingexperiments were carried out. an additional objective pursued by the authorswas to elaborate on the analytical method superplasiic forming of lens-shapedcomponents which have considerable industrial applications and to illustrate theclose relation between the analytical results and the experimental achievements.