Robert S. Wilson

Innovative consolidation of titanium and titanium alloy powders by direct rolling

Abstract R&D efforts at CSIRO, Australia, into the production of ‘lower cost’ titanium powders are complemented by a strong, downstream PM programme. One of these efforts has focused on the direct powder rolling of commercially pure (cp) titanium powder with a view to the continuous production of fully dense strip. Considerable research is also being undertaken to produce titanium alloy strip, initially from the Ti–6Al–4V alloy, using this process. An experimental design approach has been employed to establish key parameters, maximise the process window and meet property specifications. Demonstration of a proof-of-system at pilot scale is well advanced and the focus is now shifting to seeking industrial engagement with a view to collaboration, technology transfer and commercialisation of the technology. The current status of the technology is surveyed including aspects of the associated market trends and commercial feasibility.

Implementing the Direct Powder Route for Titanium Mill Product: Continuous Production of CP Sheet

Major research and development efforts both in CSIRO and elsewhere aim to develop processes for commercial production of low cost titanium powder. These processes could reduce the current cost of titanium, but the major savings are expected to come by enabling powder metallurgical processes which transform these powders into products. Powder metallurgical (PM) processes (e.g. CIP/HIP) are well established for discrete components, but technologies for continuous production of “mill” product are immature. New processes will be needed for the economic manufacture of mill product (e.g. sheet and tube) from the large quantities of low-cost powder which will become available when the emerging powder production processes enter commercial production. The paper will present a process for the production of commercial purity (CP) sheet by direct rolling of powder. It is novel in that it avoids both the use of binders and densification via batch sintering. A roll compacted green sheet is rapidly heated under a controlled atmosphere before being consolidated to nominally 100% density by hot rolling. Following conventional batch annealing, strip samples exhibit properties approaching those of commercial wrought sheet of an equivalent grade. In order to achieve this, a number of key variables including powder chemistry, morphology and particle packing, the roll compaction and hot rolling parameters needed to be understood and closely controlled.

Production of Ti-6Al-4V Strip by Direct Rolling of Blended Elemental Powder

A significant research effort within the CSIRO Light Metal Flagship is aimed at developing new processes for the manufacture of (semi-finished) titanium products based on a powder metallurgy approach. The main driver for considering alternative processing and consolidation techniques to conventional ingot metallurgy is improved techno-economics associated with a reduction in processing steps and increased productivity via rapid consolidation of parts. In this respect, CSIRO has developed a process to manufacture sheet products utilising direct powder rolling; the process consists of cold rolling the powder feedstock to a green strip, which is then rapidly heated and hot rolled to consolidate the material completely. The work reported here was an investigation into the feasibility of fabricating Ti-6Al-4V strip by a blended elemental powder metallurgy route. The development of microstructures occurring during the processing and heat treatment steps has been studied. The generic roles of some process, material and heat treatment variables on the tensile properties and homogeneity of the final material have been assessed and are discussed in this paper.

High-Temperature Heat Transport and Storage Using LBE Alloy for Concentrated Solar Power System

Liquid metals have received growing attention as a potential replacement for more conventional heat transfer fluids in concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. Owing to liquid metals high thermal conductivity, an increase in solar receiver efficiency as well as higher serviceable temperatures could enable more advanced power cycles to be integrated to the CSP system. Recently, CSIRO carried out research on a solar air turbine system which includes a demonstration of a high-temperature pressurized air receiver combined with high-temperature thermal storage. Since the operation temperature of a solar air turbine system is much higher than that of conventional CSP systems, Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) alloy was chosen for its favorable high temperature heat transport properties and relative ease of storage. The heat test apparatus consisted of a LBE-air heat exchanger, storage tanks with internal heating elements and a pumping system developed by CSIRO. During the test, approximately 1,000 kg of LBE was successfully pumped while capturing and storing approximately 35MJ of solar energy. The test successfully transferred heat from the solar air receiver to the LBE, with the temperature of stored LBE reaching over 770 °C.This paper will present the concept of the test system, design of its components, procedures and results of the test, and also lessons learnt.Copyright

Extrusion of CP grade titanium powders eliminating the need for hot pre-compaction via hot isostatic pressing

Extrusion is a way to produce near net shape components from CP grade titanium powders of optimum density with minimum porosity and acceptable mechanical properties. Chemically pure, hydride/dehydride titanium powders were cold pre-compacted and extruded at 850oC under an argon atmosphere. The extrusion stress required was ~450MPa. To characterize the extrusions, the porosity distribution, qualitative microstructure and tensile properties were evaluated and compared with conventional extruded wrought titanium. Extrusion occurred after the green billets were upset to ~100% of theoretical density and adequate lubrication was applied to the die. The resultant product was 100% dense with a narrow band of surface porosity and exhibited an equiaxed microstructure of similar magnitude to the starting material. The tensile properties of the bars were observed to be significantly superior to conventionally extruded CP titanium bar products, a result associated with the much finer average grain size. Outcomes from this study have assisted in the identification of a number of key characteristics important to the extrusion of titanium from pre-compacted CP titanium powders, allowing the elimination of canning and hot isostatic pressing (HIPping) of billets prior to extrusion as per conventional PM processes.

Early trends on the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Flight Model 6 (FM6) instrument's performance.

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) scanning radiometer is designed to measure the solar radiation reflected by the Earth and thermal radiation emitted by the Earth. Five CERES instruments are already in service; two aboard the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999; two aboard the Aqua spacecraft, launched in 2002, and one aboard the S-NPP spacecraft launched in 2011. A sixth instrument, flight model 6 (FM6), launched in November 2017 aboard the JPSS-1 satellite, began taking radiance measurements on January 6th, 2018. The CERES FM6 instrument uses three scanning thermistor bolometers to make broadband radiance measurements in the shortwave, total, and longwave regions. An internal calibration module (ICM) used for in-flight calibration is built into the CERES instrument package consisting of an anodized aluminum blackbody source for calibrating the total and longwave sensors, and a shortwave internal calibration source (SWICS) for the shortwave sensor. The calibration sources are used to define shifts or drifts in the sensor response over the life of the mission. Additional validation tests including solar calibrations and coastline detections are used to validate the pointing accuracy of the instrument and supplement the ICM data. This paper presents the results of FM6 on-orbit internal calibrations, discusses any ground to flight changes, describes trends in the calibration data, summarizes the results of the solar calibration and coastline detection analysis, and discusses strategies for comparing FM6 to other CERES instruments.

In-flight shortwave calibrations of the active cavity radiometers using tungsten lamps

The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) active cavity radiometers are used to measure the incoming solar, reflected shortwave solar, and emitted longwave radiations from the Earth and atmosphere. The radiometers are located on the NASAs Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 spacecraft platforms. Two of the radiometers, one wide field of view (WFOV) and one medium field of view (MFOV), measure the total radiation in the spectral region of 0.2 to 50 microns and the other two radiometers (WFOV and MFOV) measure the shortwave radiation in the spectral region of 0.2 to 5.0 microns. For the in-flight calibrations, tungsten lamp and the sun are used as calibration sources for shortwave radiometers. Descriptions of the tungsten lamp and solar calibration procedures and mechanisms are presented. The tungsten lamp calibration measurements are compared with the measurements of solar calibration for ERBS and NOAA-9 instruments.