Establishment of a Process for Creep Forging Aluminum Alloy Weapon Components.

摘要

This program was aimed at a novel manufacturing method for the reduction of the fabrication costs of aluminum weapon components. Its technical goal was to combine the ability of powder metallury processing to produce a well-proportioned preform and of creep forging to make a precision part. The work was done in two phases. The first phase was devoted to characterizing elemental 7075 blended aluminum powder, establishing requisite process criteria, and formulating a preliminary process specification. Five variables were investigated under a statistical designed experimental program. They were (1) particle size, (2) preform density, (3) sintering temperature, (4) forging temperature, and (5) percent forging deformation. Using the requisite process criteria set up from these variables, a preliminary process specification was formulated and further refined by isostatic pressing of trapezoidal preforms and their forging into 'T' shapes. The resultant forgings had elements of forward extrusion, backward extrusion, and lateral flow and helped define the optimized parameters necessary for creep forging.