Innovative Manufacturing Process for Defect free, Affordable, High Pressure, Thin Walled Hydraulic Tubing for Navy Aircraft

The objective of the technical effort is to eventually identify a material and a process that produces thin wall high pressure tubing for high performance aircraft, specifically Navy aircraft. The need for improvements stems from disastrous failures and the subsequent failure investigations that have indicated a need for a more fracture-tolerant tubing material. The first phase of the effort will consist of four distinct activities: 1. Titanium Alloy, TI-425.will be evaluated as a replacement material for Ti-325, the alloy used in current high pressure hydraulic tubes. The former is a relatively new alloy, stronger than Ti-325, with good cold-working performance. This activity will use flat plates. The goal is to identify an oxygen level and thermal treatment that results in a condition such that the 425 alloy is still stronger (and more crack resistant) than the 325 alloy while, exhibiting superior ductility ( and thus, workability). 2. Manufacturing studies will be conducted with major Titanium suppliers to insure that the research results can be economically transferred to large-scale industrial practice 3. Systems-level studies will be held with a major aircraft manufacturer to determine the impact of the change in tubing material on systems performance. 4. Liasion will be established with laboratories involved in Pressure Impulse Testing