Development of Aerospace Quality Aluminum Alloys Utilizing Advanced Powder Metallurgy Technologies

加拿大制造的轻金属航空航天部件进入市场的一个主要障碍是价格竞争力。拟议的研究项目旨在通过发展低成本可持续制造技术来帮助加拿大公司面对这一困境。特别是那些依靠先进的粉末冶金（PM）金属成形技术的产品。在这里，组件可以直接由轻金属粉末（即铝合金）以近净形状的方式制造。这种方法的优势在于，材料产出率为50%至95%，能耗比竞争技术低50%左右，同时，制造周期的环境足迹有限。现在已经设计了一个战略联盟，以最大限度地提高工业相关性和加拿大航空航天部门商业实施的长期前景的方式利用这些优势。此次联合涉及商用飞机制造（波音）和工程部件粉末冶金生产（GKN Sinter Metals）的全球领导者，以及专门从事铝粉末冶金材料开发的学术研究人员。首要的技术目标是在开发新型铝基材料中利用PM加工的优势，这些材料表现出比锻造航空航天铝合金优越的性能。为了应对这一挑战，将系统地探索各种PM处理策略。一个流将强调粉末直接加工成一个完全致密的产品利用新兴的烧结策略火花等离子烧结。第二个将侧重于应用目前在高性能汽车零部件的工业制造中采用的既定生产技术。所谓的压制和烧结加工，这种活动流将基于粉末压实和液相烧结两个阶段的顺序。每个流程都将在具有航空航天相关化学成分的粉末上完成，并将探索热机械工作的影响。在所有情况下，优化的工业生产顺序将与支持伙伴直接合作设计。

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.