SPITFIRE-1

The purpose of this effort is to develop low-cost rapid forming superplastic aluminum that will be evaluated in pilot production trials for automotive SPF components. The alloy development study conducted under SPITFIRE-1 showed that the addition of CU or Mn to the base 5083 aluminum alloy refined the grain size, leading to enhanced superplastic properties. In SPITFIRE-2, these alloy variants will be further refined and studied to meet the target properties established earlier in the program. Mechanical properties, component forming and post-forming properties will be evaluated. Also, the alloy production process, including thermomechanical processing (TMP) optimization to reduce production cost, will be investigated during SPITFIRE-2. After identifying preferred compositions and production processing, the most promising alloy will be manufactured into production coils for verification during SPITFIRE-3. Components will be produced from these coils in SPITFIRE-4, and the process and component performance will be assessed

Effect of alloying on mechanical properties of as cast ferritic nodular cast irons

The development of low temperature applications for ferritic nodular cast irons calls for improved materials in the as cast state, e.g. for off-shore windmills components. Within this line of work, a series of 68 castings were prepared with the same casting procedure and slight changes in composition. The tensile properties at room temperature, as well as the impact energy for rupture at room temperature, 220 °C and 240 °C, were measured. Outputs from multivariate analysis performed on the data are then discussed and compared to literature results, putting emphasis on the properties of the ferritic matrix