Novel Alloys and Innovative Low Cost Manufacturing Process for Defect Free, Improved, High Pressure Titanium Hydraulic Tubing for Navy Aircraft

This Phase I SBIR proposal addresses the Navy’s need to improve the reliability and safety of titanium thin-walled, high pressure hydraulic tubing used in naval aircraft. Powder metal processing will be used to produce novel, cold formable titanium alloys that are more damage resistant and damage tolerant than the standard tubing alloy, Ti-3Al-2.5V. Tubing will be produced from P/M tube hollows and evaluated to establish the technical feasibility of using P/M tube hollows as starting stock to produce titanium hydraulic tubing. In Phase I several innovative titanium alloys will be evaluated for cold formability, damage resistance and damage tolerance by; smooth and notched tensile properties, scratch hardness, indentation hardness, microstructure and chemistry. These tests will identify the most promising alloys for the production of hydraulic tubing and establish the initial economic and technical viability of making tubing from P/M tube hollows. Impulse tests and low cycle fatigue testing of tubes will be conducted in the Phase I Option to establish that tubes produced from the alloys developed in Phase I are indeed superior to Ti-3Al-2.5V. The proposed technology will answer the need for affordable, damage resistant and damage tolerant titanium thin-walled high pressure hydraulic tubing for military and commercial aircraft.