Hollow metal article fabrication
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsPeter E. Leibfried, Raymond P. Ristau, Steven F. Keeney, Dennis Wentworth
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Abstract
A process is described for producing hollow articles from high strength, high temperature metals such as titanium alloys. A finite element analysis is used to determine a preform configuration in which the external surface of the finished article is translated into a flat plane. All machining is performed on flat stock on only one side, and includes mating cavities which define the hollow portion of the article. The preforms are die forged and diffusion bonded and then superplastically inflated to fit the contour of a cavity in a die, which provides the external contour of the article.
Claims9
A method for fabricating a hollow metal article including the steps of:
- a. machining one side only of at least one of at least two mating preform segments to a predetermined preform configuration which includes at least one recessed area in said segments;
- b. forging and bonding said preform segments in a forging die so that the outer surfaces of said preform segments essentially conform with the inner surfaces of a cavity in said forging die and the non-recessed areas of the preform segment are bonded together, thus forming a bonded article containing at least one internal cavity;
- c. inflating said bonded article by forcing high pressure non-oxidizing gas into said at least one internal cavity in said bonded article such that said outer surfaces of said bonded article conform to the inner surfaces of a cavity in an inflation die;
- and
- d. machining said article to a desired final configuration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.