Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120

A study on the process to control the cavity and the thickness

distribution of superplastically formed parts
Young-Seon Lee*, Sang-Yong Lee, Jung-Hwan Lee
Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, #66, Sangnam-Dong, Changwon, Kyungnam, South Korea
Received 2 September 1999; accepted 2 February 2001

Abstract

The use of superplastically formed Al alloy components could save cost and reduce weight in aerospace structures. However, problems
related with non-uniform thickness and cavitation occur during superplastic deformation. In the case of hemisphere forming part, the
thickness becomes much thinner and the cavitation increased exponentially as closed to the pole. In order to unify the thickness and to
decrease the cavity, the thickness distribution of sheet was controlled by using the rotary forging. The sheet is preformed into the cone type
and become the thickest in the center. The hemisphere formed part using the preformed sheet has uniform thickness and also lower cavity
than that of original sheet. It is found that cavity is increased rapidly when the strain reaches the critical value. Also discussed are that the
critical strain is closely related to shapes and positions in the vicinity of particles and at triple point of grain boundary. # 2001 Elsevier
Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Superplastic blow forming; Rotary forming; Thickness distribution; Cavity; AlCuZr alloy

1. Introduction sheet with respect to the thickness and cavity of hemisphe-

Concurrent superplastic forming and diffusion bonding
(SPF/DB) have been recognized as a viable manufacturing
technology that can result in both cost and weight savings
compared with conventional manufacturing methods. How-
ever, problems related with non-uniform thickness distribu-
tion and cavitation often occur during SPF. It leads to a
degradation of the mechanical properties of the superplas-
tically formed parts. The recent investigations are mainly
concentrated on the development of technology for having a
uniform thickness distribution and a reduced cavity after
SPF [15].
At present, the diaphragm forming is known as an indust-
rially useful technology to obtain the uniform thickness
distribution [6]. However, the diaphragm forming is inade-
quate for forming of hemispherical shaped parts such as fuel
tanks for satellite and motorcycles due to the complexity in
the preparation of materials.
In the present study, the effect of preforming by the rotary
forming has been discussed, compared with as-received
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lys1668@kmail.kimm.re.kr (Y.-S. Lee).
rical formed part.
2. Experimental
The chemical compositions and the mechanical properties
of the specimen used for this work (Supral 100 from Alcan)
are shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The values are
average acquired in ve specimens. Sheets with 1 mm in
thickness were used for pre-experiment and ones with 2 mm
in thickness were used for hemisphere forming process to
investigate the properties of formed part.
SPF was performed using a numerically controlled cus-
tom-built equipment as shown in Fig. 1 and processing
parameters such as forming temperature, pressure cycle,
amount of deformation, forming velocity, were controlled
by computer aided control system and all the data were
generated and stored in ASCII code.
As forming temperature and strain rate were reported to
have a signicant effect on the superplastic behaviors of the
materials, special attention was paid to obtain the optimum
processing conditions [7]. Based upon the results from
references and the step strain rate tensile test, the optimum
forming condition for Supral 100 was determined to be
approximately 10 310 4 s 1 at 4508C [8,9]. Therefore the

0924-0136/01/$ see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 5 6 4 - 7
 Y.-S. Lee et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120 115

Table 1 Table 2
Chemical compositions of Supral 100 Mechanical properties of Supral 100

Material Element Property Material, Supral 100

Cu Zr Si Fe Mn Zn Al As-received After heat treatment (T6)

Supral 100 6.02 0.34 0.17 0.16 0.09 0.03 Balance UTS (MPa) 316 450.9
Elongation (%) 6.25 21.6

gas pressure was programmed to operate to yield the strain thickness for hemisphere forming under a strain rate of
rate of 10 310 4 s 1 when sheet temperature reaches to 10 310 4 s 1 [10,11]. Thickness distribution and the
4508C. Previous results showed that maximum pressure of degree of cavity formation in the superplastically formed
0.2 MPa was required to form the sheets with 2 mm in parts were analyzed quantitatively in minimum ve

Fig. 1. Diagram of the SPF machine.

Fig. 2. Diagram of rotary forming and the thickness change of sheet after rotary forming.
116 Y.-S. Lee et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120
specimens. Optical microscopy as well as scanning electron
microscopy were used for the microstructural analysis.
Elongation data on various locations of the superplastically
formed parts were measured using grid marking methods
and the thickness distribution was measured directly using
point micrometer after the specimens were cutoff. The
volume fraction of the cavities after the SPF was measured
from the SEM photographs using an image analyzer.
Rotary forming as a preforming was done on the as-
received sheets of 200 mm in diameter and the photographs
and the dimensions of the rotary formed sheets are shown in
Fig. 2.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Analysis on as-received sheet and the rotary formed
sheet
Based upon the results from the TEM study, the grain size
of the Supral 100 did not change much during the SPF
process, showing approximately 2.5 mm in diameter both
before and after the forming as shown in Fig. 3.
Materials showing superplastic characteristics generally
have grain size of less than 10 mm in diameter. If the
microstructure and the grain size of sheet are varied during
the rotary forming process, it could possibly lose super-
plastic characteristics. Therefore the sheets were subject to
the XRD analysis before and after the rotary forming, the
results indicated that there were little variation in the micro-
structure during the forming process, as shown in Fig. 4. The
XRD peak from (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) of the sheets got inten-
sied in a small degree while the intensities of the peaks
from (2 2 0) and (3 1 1) decreased.
The FWHM (full width of half maximum intensity) of
rotary formed sheet was increased due to dislocation density
grown by the cold working, as shown in Table 3. However,
this did not affect the characteristics of superplasticity of the
materials.
Fig. 3. TEM microstructure of Supral 100.
3.2. Thickness distribution and cavitation in
superplastically formed part using the as-received sheet
and the rotary formed sheet
3.2.1. Thickness distribution
The cross-section and thickness distribution of super-
plastically formed hemispherical parts were summarized
in Fig. 5. From the result of LVDT (linear velocity displace-
ment transducer) measurement, it is found that forming
velocity at the center was 0.02 mm/s. It showed that the
thickness at the center was minimum and became increased
as it goes to the outside. Also the thickness became reduced
further as the forming time increased. The thickness strain
(et) at the center of the formed part (DH 30 mm, dome
height) was measured to be approximately 0.4 in 20 min and
1.6 in 40 min.
Also increased the thickness deviation at various locations
of the formed part as the amount of the deformation.
In this study, rotary forming of the as-received sheets was
employed as a preforming process of the SPF in order to
improve the uniformity of the thickness variation. The
thickness at the center and the outside of the sheet formed
by rotary forming were determined from the preliminary
results using machined materials at various thickness. The
results indicated that the cracking near the clamping areas
occur if the thickness difference between the center and the
outside is over 4 mm. Based upon the preliminary results
obtained from machined materials, the thickness difference
of the rotary formed materials at the center and the outside
was set to be approximately 0.10.2 mm.
The thickness distribution of formed part of the as-
received sheet and rotary formed sheet under the identical
forming conditions were summarized in Fig. 6. The super-
plastic formed part of rotary formed sheet showed much
improved thickness distribution, showing the thickness at
the center of 1.31 and 1.6 mm at the clamping area. On the
contrary, the formed part which use the as-received sheet
showed the thickness of 0.4 mm at the center and 1.55 mm at
the outside.
 Y.-S. Lee et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120 117

Fig. 4. The XRD pattern of as-received and as-rotary formed sheet.

3.2.2. Correlation of cavity and strain

In case of superplastic hemisphere formed products, as
the strain increases, the thickness non-uniformity owing to
the cavity generation increased and cavity generation gives
an harmful effect on mechanical properties of the formed
parts.
Fig. 7 shows the distribution of the volume fraction of
cavity measured from the part formed with as-received sheet
and the preformed sheets by rotary forming.
The cavity volume fraction of formed part which use the
as-received sheets do not change much until et 1:5, how-
ever, it suddenly increases as et reaches 1.6. It could be
attributed to cavity generation. Fig. 8(a) shows the cavity
separation due to the difference in hardness value between
the coarse et phase at the grain boundary and grains, which
could be observed when et, is lower than 1.
Fig. 8(b), at critical strain et 1:9 shows the cavity
growth owing to the cavity generation at triple point of grain
boundary, growth and connection.
Fig. 9 shows clearly that cavity forming, growth and
connection at triple point of grain boundary. Therefore it
could be concluded that the sudden increase of the volume
fraction of cavity at et 1:6 is due to the cavity formation on
triple point of grain boundary. The cavity volume fraction of

Table 3
The change of FWHM by rotary forging

(1 1 1) (2 0 0) (2 2 0) (3 1 1)

Before rotary forging 0.12 0.23 0.42 0.52 Fig. 5. Thickness distribution prole according to the forming amount: (a)
After rotary forging 0.22 0.48 0.47 0.69 appearances of hemispheres at different forming amount; (b) thickness
distribution according to the distance from the center.
118 Y.-S. Lee et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120

Fig. 6. The comparison of thickness distribution of formed part using the as-received sheet and the rotary formed sheet.

Fig. 7. The comparison of cavity volume fraction of formed part using as-received and rotary formed sheet with respect to thickness strain.

Fig. 8. Change of cavity with respect to thickness strain (et) after SPF of the as-received sheet: (a) et 0:5; (b) et 1:9.
 Y.-S. Lee et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 112 (2001) 114120
Fig. 9. Micrographs showing the development of cavities: (a) cavities
formed in the grain boundaries et 1:0; (b) interlinkage of cavities in
the grain boundaries et 1:6; (c) coalescence of cavities at the triple
point of grain boundaries et 1:9.
formed part which use the preformed sheet by rotary form-
ing did not vary much and this could be attributed to the
thickness uniformity, resulting in a small thickness strain at
the center point of et 0:4.
To summarize, the cavity increases as the strain increases
and for strain higher than et 1:6, cavity growth and
119
cavity coalescence are resulted to develop coarse cavities.
At the same time the cavities at the triple point get coarsened
too, as the strain increases. At the early stage of the SPF
process, cavities generally have a spherical shape, but it
tends to elongate along the stress axis and to grow, and
eventually get coalescenced. Cavities of 5 mm or larger in
size could be early observed when strain is higher than
et 1:6.
4. Conclusions
Based upon the results from this work, it was possible to
obtain the superplastic deformation of hemispherical parts
with uniform thickness through the initial thickness control
by rotary forming. Expected is to apply the same technology
to parts with varying thickness.
1. Creative technology of utilizing materials with con-
trolled initial thickness through rotary forming was
employed and it was possible to obtain a formed part
with uniform thickness by blow forming process.
2. Based on the XRD analysis on the raw materials and
rotary forging materials, observed was the increasing of
the dislocation density, but this did not affect the
superplastic characteristics of the sheets.
3. Superplastically formed parts with prior thickness
control by rotary forming show not only the uniformity
of the thickness of the deformed part, but the benets of
reduction in porosity in the formed parts.
4. In Supral 100 materials it was noted that critical strain
exist (et 1:6 or higher) which induces rapid increase in
cavity in the hemispherical formed part and cavity at the
critical deformation rate were observed to develop at the
triple point of the grains.
5. Spherically shaped pores at the initial stages of de-
formation underwent variation of their morphology into
elongation, growth, and coalescence to form coarse
pores as the strain increased. At or below the strain rate
of 1.6, pores with a length of 5 mm or higher were rarely
observed, while pores with large sizes developed rapidly
with increasing strain rates.
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