Development of Aerospace Quality Aluminum Alloys Utilizing Advanced Powder Metallurgy Technologies

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A key barrier to market entry for Canadian-manufactured light metal aerospace components is price competitiveness. The proposed research project seeks to assist Canadian firms faced with this dilemma through the development of low-cost sustainable manufacturing technologies. In particular, those that rely on the advanced metal forming technology of powder metallurgy (PM). Here, components can be directly fabricated from light metal powders (i.e. aluminum alloys) in a near-net-shape manner. This approach is advantageous in that material yields >95% are the norm, energy consumption is some 50% lower than competing technologies, and concomitantly, the environmental footprint of the manufacturing cycle is limited. A strategic alliance has now been devised to exploit these advantages in a way that maximizes industrial relevance and the long-term prospects for commercial implementation within Canada's aerospace sector. The unification involves global leaders in commercial aircraft fabrication (Boeing) and the PM production of engineered components (GKN Sinter Metals) along with academic researchers that specialize in the development of aluminum PM materials. The over-arching technical objective is to leverage the benefits of PM processing in the development of novel aluminum-based materials that exhibit superior properties to wrought aerospace aluminum alloys. To meet this challenge, a variety of PM processing strategies will be systematically explored. One stream will emphasize the direct processing of powders into a fully dense product utilizing the emerging sintering strategy of spark plasma sintering. The second will focus on the application of established production technology currently employed in the industrial manufacture of high performance automotive components. So called press-and-sinter processing, this stream of activity will be based on the two stage sequence of powder compaction and liquid phase sintering. Each stream will be completed on powders with aerospace-relevant chemistries and will also explore the effects of thermo-mechanical working. In all cases, optimized industrial production sequences will be devised in direct collaboration with the supporting partners.