Superplasticity in Advanced Materials - ICSAM 2009

The original use of superplastic materials involved mainly applications involving aluminium and titanium. However, discoveries made all over the globe have led to the development of superplastic ceramics, intermetallics, nano-materials, plastics, glasses and other substances.The industrialization of the SPF process had its primary roots in the aerospace manufacturing sector, but recent advances in technology and materials have driven a trend towards broader applications. SPF is now being used to fabricate automotive body parts, rail-car fabrications, Class-8 truck parts, motorcycle components, medical implants and equipment, architectural panels, electronic housings and other products.The objective of this collection was to gather together current knowhow (both academic and industrial) in the field of superplasticity, with the hope of promoting teamwork, collaboration and partnering in order to further the technology for the benefit of the entire world.The first of the 42 selected and peer-reviewed papers places the conference in the context of 75 years of research in superplasticity. The others cover industrial applications with innovations; materials processing methods to enhance superplasticity; numerical simulations and modeling; superplasticity in metal alloys; and microstructure control and evolution, mechanisms of grain boundary sliding, and failure. Among topics of specific papers are manufacturing a titanium spherical and hollow cylinder vessel using blow forming, friction stir processing commercial grade marine alloys to enable superplastic forming, the role of numerical simulation in superplastic forming process analysis and optimization, whether superplasticity is needed for large deformability of wrought magnesium alloys, and analyzing grain-boundary sliding with rotating hexagonal particles.