TRAINING NOTES

6.1 AIRCRAFT MATERIALS — FERROUS (LP-1 to 12)

1. Characteristics, properties and identification of common alloy steels used in aircraft;
2. Heat treatment and application of alloy steels;

Aircraft Metals
• In aircraft maintenance and repair, even a slight deviation from design specification, or the substitution
of inferior materials, may result in the loss of both lives and equipment.
• The selection of the correct material for a specific repair job demands familiarity with the most common
physical properties of various metals.
• Metals can be divided into two main groups - ferrous and non ferrous.
• Ferrous Metals mostly contain Iron. They have small amounts of other metals or elements added, to
give the required properties. Ferrous Metals are magnetic and give little resistance to corrosion.
• Non-Ferrous Metals do not contain Iron, are not magnetic and are usually more resistant to corrosion
than ferrous metals.
• With the help of two simple tests we differentiate ferrous & non ferrous metals.

1. Magnetic Test:-
➢ When we make a contact between metal pieces & Magnet then some pieces of metal are attracted
towards the magnet.
➢ These attracted metals are ferrous because it posses magnetic property & remaining metal pieces
are nonferrous does not possess magnetic property.

2. Spark Test:-
➢ Spark testing is a common means of identifying various ferrous metals.
➢ In this test the piece of iron or steel is held against a revolving grinding stone and the metal is
identified by the sparks thrown off.
➢ Each ferrous metal has its own peculiar spark characteristics.
➢ The spark streams vary from a few tiny shafts to a shower of sparks several feet in length.
➢ Few nonferrous metals give off sparks when touched to a grinding stone. Therefore, these metals
cannot be successfully identified by the spark test.

❖ Physical Properties of Metals

1. Hardness - Hardness refers to the ability of a material to resist abrasion, penetration, cutting action, or
permanent distortion.
✓ Hardness may be increased by cold working the metal and, in the case of steel and certain
aluminum alloys, by heat treatment.
✓ Hardness and strength are closely associated properties of metals.

2. Strength - Strength is the ability of a material to resist deformation.

✓ Strength is also the ability of a material to resist stress without breaking.

3. Density - Density is the weight of a unit volume of a material.

✓ In aircraft work, the specified weight of a material per cubic inch is preferred since this figure can be
used in determining the weight of a part before actual manufacture.
✓ Density is an important consideration when choosing a material.

4. Malleability - A metal which can be hammered, rolled, or pressed into various shapes without cracking,
breaking, or leaving some other detrimental effect, is said to be malleable.
✓ This property is necessary in sheet metal that is worked into curved shapes, such as cowlings,
fairings, or wingtips.
✓ Copper is an example of a malleable metal.

5. Ductility - Ductility is the property of a metal which permits it to be permanently drawn, bent, or twisted
into various shapes without breaking.
✓ This property is essential for metals used in making wire and tubing.
✓ Ductile metals are greatly preferred for aircraft use because of their ease of forming and resistance
to failure under shock loads.

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 ✓ Ductility is similar to malleability.

6. Elasticity - Elasticity is that property that enables a metal to return to its original size and shape when
the force which causes the change of shape is removed.

7. Toughness - A material which possesses toughness will withstand tearing or shearing and may be
stretched or otherwise deformed without breaking.

8. Brittleness - Brittleness is the property of a metal which allows little bending or deformation without
shattering.
✓ A brittle metal is apt to break or crack without change of shape.
✓ Cast iron, cast aluminum, and very hard steel are examples of brittle metals.

9. Fusibility - Fusibility is the ability of a metal to become liquid by the application of heat.
✓ Metals are fused in welding.
✓ Steels fuse around 2,600 °F and aluminum alloys at approximately 1,100 °F.

10. Conductivity - Conductivity is the property which enables a metal to carry heat or electricity.

11. Thermal Expansion - Thermal expansion refers to contraction and expansion that are reactions
produced in metals as the result of heating or cooling.
✓ Heat applied to a metal will cause it to expand or become larger.

❖ Heat Treatment terms

1. Critical Range - The range of temperature in which its internal structure is altered.
✓ For steel this range is in between 13000F to 16000F.

2. Annealing - Annealing is the process of heating steel above the critical range holding it at that
temperature until it is uniformly heated and the grain is refined and then cooling it very slowly.
✓ The annealing softens the metal & relives internal strains.

3. Normalizing - Normalizing is similar to annealing but steel is allowed to cool in still air.
✓ Normalizing applies only to steel.
✓ It relives internal strains, softens the metal somewhat less than annealing and at the same time
increases the strength of steel about 20% above that of annealed material.

4. Heat Treatment - Heat Treatment consists of a series of operations which have as their aim the
improvement of the physical properties of a material.

5. Hardening - Hardening of steel is done by heating the metal to a temperature above the critical range &
then quenching it.
✓ Aluminum alloys are hardened by heating to a temperature above 9000F & then quenching.

6. Quenching - Quenching is the immersion of the heated metal in a liquid, usually either oil or water, to
accelerate its cooling rate.

7. Tempering - Tempering is the reheating of hardened steel to a temperature below its critical range,
followed by cooling as desired.
✓ Tempering is sometimes referred as “drawing”

8. Carburizing - Carburizing is the addition of carbon to steel by heating it at a high temperature while in
contact with a carbonaceous material in solid, liquid or gaseous form.
✓ Carburizing is best performed on steel containing less than o.25% carbon content.

9. Case Hardening - Casehardening consist of carburizing followed by suitable heat treatment to harden
the metal case.

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❖ Physical Test Terms

1. Strain - Strain is the deformation of material caused by applied load.

2. Stress - Stress is the load acting on a material.

3. Tensile Strength - It is the maximum radial load per square inch which a material can withstand. It is
measured in pound per inch.
✓ This is also called ultimate tensile strength (U.T.S.)

4. Elastic Limit - The limit of elasticity beyond which an

object cannot recovers its original shape. Or. The
greatest stress that can be applied to an elastic body
without causing permanent deformation.

5. Proportional Limit - The proportional limit is the load

per square inch beyond which the increases in strain
cease to be directly proportional to the increase in
stress.
✓ The low of proportionality between stress & strain
is known as Hooke’s Law.

6. Proof Stress - The load per unit area that a structure

can withstand without being permanently deformed
by more than a specified amount.

7. Yield strength - Yield strength is the load per square inch at which a material exhibits a specified
limiting permanent set or a specified elongation under load.

8. Yield point - The yield point is the load per square inch at which there occurs marked increases in
deformation without an increase in load.

9. Elongation (percentage) - The percentage elongation is the difference in gage length before being
subjected to any stress & after rupture, expressed in percentage of the original gage length.

10. Reduction of area (percentage) - The percentage reduction of area is the difference between the
original cross sectional area & the least cross sectional area after rupture, expressed as a percentage
of the original cross sectional area.

11. Modulus of elasticity - The modulus of elasticity of a material is the ratio of stress to strain within the
elastic limit.
✓ Thus E = Stress
Strain

Aircraft Ferrous Metals

✓ The term “ferrous” applies to the group of metals having iron as their principal constituent.
❖ Iron
If carbon is added to iron, in percentages ranging up to approximately 1 percent, the product is vastly
superior to iron alone and is classified as carbon steel.
A base metal (such as iron) to which small quantities of other metals have been added is called an alloy.

❖ Steel and Steel Alloys

Sr. No. MATERIAL CARBON CONTENT
1. Wrought Iron Trace to 0.08%
2. Low Carbon Steel 0.10% to 0.30%
3. Medium Carbon Steel 0.30% to 0.50%
4. High Carbon Steel 0.50% to 1.05%
5. Cast Iron 2.2% to 4.5%

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❖ Effect of Individual Elements

1. Carbon (C)
✓ Carbon is the most important constituent of steel.
✓ It easily combines with iron to form iron carbide (Fe3C), which is a compound known as cementite.
✓ It raises tensile strength, hardness, and resistance to wear and abrasion.
✓ It lowers ductility, malleability, weldability, toughness and machinability.
✓ Low carbon steel – used where drawing or excessive mechanical working is required without
strength.
✓ Low carbon steels are best for welding.
✓ Medium carbon steel – used for forged fittings & tie-rods where good strength combined with
ductility is required.
✓ High carbon steel – used where great hardness is required & ductility is not important. Used for
spring.

2. Manganese (Mn)
✓ Its primary purpose is to deoxidize and desulphurize the steel.
✓ It deoxidize by eliminating ferrous oxide & combines with sulphur to form manganese sulphide.
✓ Manganese posses the property known as “penetration hardness”.
✓ In alloy steel manganese will be less than 1% because it increases brittleness of the metal.
✓ It has an interesting property of being non magnetic.

3. Silicon (Si)
✓ Only small amount not exceeding 0.3% of silicon is present in steel.
✓ Silicon is excellent deoxidizers but is combines with iron more easily than carbon.
✓ It produces sound metal.
✓ These steels have good impact resistance.

4. Sulphur (S)
✓ Sulphur is undesirable impurity which must be limited in amount not more than 0.06%.
✓ The presence of sulphur makes steel brittle at rolling & forging temperature. In this condition steel is
said to be “Hot Short”.

5. Phosphorus (P)
✓ Like sulphur it is an undesirable impurity limited in amount not more than 0.05%.
✓ Phosphorus is responsible for “Cold Shortness” or brittleness when the metal is cold.

6. Nickel (Ni)
✓ Nickel is white metal almost as bright as silver.
✓ In pure state it is malleable, ductile & wieldable.
✓ The commonly used nickel steel contains 3% to 5% nickel.
✓ It increases strength, yield point & hardness without affecting the ductility.
✓ It also increases the corrosion resistance of the steel.

7. Chromium (Cr)
✓ Chromium is hard gray metal with high melting point.
✓ It increases hardness, strength, wear resistance & corrosion resistance of steel.
✓ It improves the magnetic qualities to such an extent that chromium steel is used for magnet.
✓ Corrosion resisting steel contain large amount of chromium.
✓ Corrosion resistance steel is also known as stainless steel.
✓ Stainless steels may contain in excess of 12% chromium.
✓ The well-known “18-8” stainless steel contains 8 percent of nickel and 18 percent of chromium.

8. Molybdenum (Mo)
✓ Molybdenum is very effective alloying element.
✓ It improves homogeneity of the metal & reduces the grain size.
✓ It also increases the elastic limit, impact value, wear resistance & fatigue strength.
✓ In aircraft viewpoint it increases the air-hardening property of steel.

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9. Vanadium (V)
✓ Vanadium is the most expansive alloying element.
✓ It increases strength, hardness, wear resistance and resistance to shock impact.
✓ It retards grain growth, permitting higher quenching temperatures.

10. Tungsten (W)

✓ Tungsten steel has no direct application in aircraft but has interesting property known as “Red
Hardness”.
✓ It is used with chromium, vanadium, molybdenum, or manganese to produce high speed steel used
in cutting tools.
✓ Tungsten steel is said to be "red-hard" or hard enough to cut after it becomes red-hot.
✓ After heat treatment the steel maintains its hardness at high temperature making it particularly
suitable for cutting tools.

11. Titanium (Ti)

✓ Titanium is often added in small quantities to 18-8 corrosion resistant steel to reduce brittleness at
the operating temperature of exhaust stacks & collectors.

❖ S.A.E. Steel Numbering System

✓ The Society of Automotive Engineers numbering system is commonly used to designate the steel
used in aircraft & automotive construction.
✓ By means of simple numerical system the chemical compositions of the structural steels is
identified.
✓ In this system, a four-numeral series is used to designate the plain carbon and alloy steels; five
numerals are used to designate certain types of alloy steels.
✓ The first digits indicate the type of steel,
✓ The second digit also generally (but not always) gives the approximate amount of the major alloying
element
✓ The last two (or three) digits are intended to indicate the approximate percentage of carbon in point
or hundredths of 1%.
Sr. No. Series Types
XXXX
1. 1xxx Carbon steel
2. 2xxx Nickel steel
3. 3xxx Nickel, chromium steel
Average”% of carbon in point.
4. 4xxx Molybdenum steel
Approximate % of alloying element. 5. 5xxx Chromium steel
6. 6xxx Chromium, vanadium steel
Type of alloying element. 7. 8xxx Nickel, chromium, molybdenum steel
8. 9xxx Silicon, Manganese steel

❖ Electrochemical Test
✓ Inconel is a nickel-chromium-iron alloy closely resembling stainless steel (corrosion resistant steel,
CRS) in appearance.
✓ Because the two alloys look very much alike, a distinguishing test is often necessary.
✓ One method of identification is to use an electrochemical technique, as described in the following
paragraph, to identify the nickel (Ni) content of the alloy.
✓ Inconel has nickel content greater than 50 percent, and the electrochemical test detects nickel.

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 ✓ Prepare a wiring assembly.
✓ Prepare the two reagents (ammonium fluoride and dimethylglyoxime solutions) placing them in
separate dedicated dropper solution bottles.
✓ Before testing, you must thoroughly clean the metal.
✓ Connect the alligator clip of the wiring assembly to the bare metal being tested.
✓ Place one drop of a 0.05% reagent grade ammonium fluoride solution in deionized water on the
center of a 1 inch × 1 inch sheet of filter paper.
✓ Lay the moistened filter paper over the bare metal alloy being tested.
✓ Firmly press the end of the aluminum rod over the center of the moist paper.
✓ Maintain connection for 10 seconds while rocking the aluminum rod on the filter paper.
✓ Ensure that the light emitting diode (LED) remains glow during this period.
✓ Disconnect the wiring assembly and set it aside.
✓ Remove the filter paper and examine it to determine that a light spot appears where the connection
was made.
✓ Deposit one drop of 1.0 percent solution of reagent grade dimethylglyoxime in ethyl alcohol on the
filter paper (same side that was in contact with the test metal).
✓ A bright, distinctly pink spot will appear within seconds on the filter paper if the metal being tested is
Inconel.
✓ A brown spot will appear if the test metal is stainless steel.

❖ Heat treatment & surface hardening of ferrous metal

✓ Important consideration in the heat treatment of a steel part is to know its chemical composition.

1. Hardening
✓ Pure iron, wrought iron, and extremely low carbon steels cannot be appreciably hardened by heat
treatment, since they contain no hardening element.
✓ Cast iron can be hardened, but its heat treatment is limited.
✓ The maximum hardness depends almost entirely on the carbon content of the steel.
✓ As the carbon content increases, the ability of the steel to be hardened increases.
✓ When hardening carbon steel, it must be cooled to below 1,000 °F in less than 1 second.

2. Tempering
✓ Tempering reduces the brittleness imparted by hardening and produces definite physical properties
within the steel.
✓ Tempering always follows, never precedes, the hardening operation.
✓ In addition to reducing brittleness, tempering softens the steel.
✓ Tempering is always conducted at temperatures below the low critical point of the steel.

3. Annealing
✓ Annealing of steel produces a fine grained, soft, ductile metal without internal stresses or strains.
✓ In the annealed state, steel has its lowest strength. In general, annealing is the opposite of
hardening.
✓ Annealing of steel is accomplished by heating the metal to just above the upper critical point,
soaking at that temperature, and cooling very slowly in the furnace.

4. Normalizing
✓ The normalizing of steel removes the internal stresses set up by heat treating, welding, casting,
forming, or machining.
✓ Normalizing is accomplished by heating the steel above the upper critical point and cooling in still
air.
✓ One of the most important uses of normalizing in aircraft work is in welded parts.

❖ Casehardening/ Surface Hardening-

✓ Casehardening produces a hard wear-resistant surface or case over a strong, tough core.
✓ Casehardening is ideal for parts which require a wear-resistant surface and, at the same time, must
be tough enough internally to withstand the applied loads.
✓ In casehardening, the surface of the metal is changed chemically by introducing a high carbide or
nitride content.
✓ The core is unaffected chemically.
✓ The common forms of casehardening are carburizing, cyaniding, and nitriding.

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1. Carburizing
✓ Carburizing is a casehardening process in which carbon is added to the surface of low carbon steel.
✓ Thus, carburized steel has a high carbon surface and a low carbon interior.
✓ When the carburized steel is heat treated, the case is hardened while the core remains soft and
tough.

A. Pack Carburizing:
✓ A common method of carburizing is called “pack carburizing.”
✓ When carburizing is to be done by this method, the steel parts are packed in a container with
charcoal or some other material rich in carbon.
✓ The container is then sealed with fire clay, placed in a furnace, heated to approximately 1,700 °F,
and soaked at that temperature for several hours.
✓ As the temperature increases, carbon monoxide gas forms inside the container and, being unable
to escape, combines with the gamma iron in the surface of the steel.
✓ The depth to which the carbon penetrates depends on the length of the soaking period.

B. Gas Carburizing:
✓ In another method of carburizing, called “gas carburizing,” a material rich in carbon is introduced
into the furnace atmosphere.
✓ The carburizing atmosphere is produced by the use of various gases or by the burning of oil, wood,
or other materials.
✓ When the steel parts are heated in this atmosphere, carbon monoxide combines with the gamma
iron to produce practically the same results as those described under the pack carburizing process.

C. Liquid Carburizing:
✓ A third method of carburizing is that of “liquid carburizing.”
✓ In this method, the steel is placed in a molten salt bath that contains the chemicals required to
produce a case comparable with one resulting from pack or gas carburizing.

2. Nitriding
✓ Nitriding is unlike other casehardening processes in that, before nitriding, the part is heat treated to
produce definite physical properties.
✓ Thus, parts are hardened and tempered before being nitrided.
✓ Most steels can be nitrided, but special alloys are required for best results.
✓ These special alloys contain aluminum as one of the alloying elements and are called “nitralloys.”
✓ In nitriding, the part is placed in a special nitriding furnace and heated to a temperature of
approximately 1,000 °F.
✓ With the part at this temperature, ammonia gas is circulated within the specially constructed furnace
chamber.
✓ The high temperature cracks the ammonia gas into nitrogen and hydrogen.
✓ The ammonia which does not break down is caught in a water trap below the regions of the other
two gases.
✓ The nitrogen reacts with the iron to form nitride.
✓ The iron nitride is dispersed in minute particles at the surface and works inward.
✓ The depth of penetration depends on the length of the treatment.
✓ Nonferrous Aircraft Metals
✓ The term “nonferrous” refers to all metals which have elements other than iron as their base or
principal constituent. This group includes such metals as aluminum, titanium, copper, and
magnesium, as well as such alloyed metals as Monel and babbit.

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Signature of the Instructor Signature of Chief Instructor

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