Innovative Material for Enhancing Landing Gear Life

United States Navy (USN) aircraft landing gear components are currently made from high-strength high-toughness steels (AISI 4340, 300M, AerMet100) that lack corrosion resistance and require external means of corrosion protection, such as chromium or cadmium plating. The USN is in need of a low cost, corrosion-resistant metal alloy with mechanical properties similar to AerMet100. Under the proposed Phase I effort Malltech will utilize a mathematical model based on prior experimental and analytical work with steel alloys to design a new alloy and select appropriate thermal treatment resulting in the desired mechanical and corrosion resistance properties. Limited alloy production and testing will be done to assess feasibility and correlate with the computational model. A similar approach was successfully applied by Malltech in SBIR AF02-147 Phase I & II project to develop a conventionally produced low cost alloy with high strength and high toughness characteristics similar to the AerMet100.