Aluminum-Lithium Alloys: Chapter 7. Mechanical Working of Aluminum–Lithium Alloys

G. Jagan Reddy · R.J.H. Wanhill · Amol A. Gokhale

Sep 2013 · Elsevier Inc. Chapters

About this ebook

Mechanical working of Al–Li alloys is primarily concerned with aerospace alloy rolled products (sheet and plate), extrusions, and to a lesser extent forgings. These products are fabricated by hot working with intermittent and final heat treatments. This thermomechanical processing (TMP) can be rather complex for the modern 3rd generation Al-Li alloys, but is necessary to obtain optimum combinations of properties. This Chapter is in two parts. Part 1 discusses the ‘workability’ of metals and alloys and the hot deformation characteristics of Al–Li alloys, leading to the concept of Process Maps. A comprehensive Process Map for a binary Al–Li alloy illustrates the usefulness of these Maps for defining temperature–strain rate regions for safe and unsafe hot working, recrystallization and recovery, and superplastic behaviour Part 2 provides some general considerations about processing Al–Li alloy products, followed by a review and discussion of the currently available information for 3rd generation alloys. It is concluded that their complex TMP schedules may make it difficult to obtain optimum combinations of properties for thicker products.