Pnys Techno, Vo '4 '983 Prinied in Nonher- ,elaid
THE ANCIENT CRAFT OF
SUPERPLASTICITY
C Hammond
Superplastic parts are nowadays used in
cars, helicopters and aircraft wings.
Theories of superplasticity are still
developing today - but years ago the
technique may have helped the Saracens
to stay sharp
~
Dr Christopher Hammond is a senior lecturer in the
Department of Metallurgy , Universit! of Leeds.
His research interests include superplasticity.
creep and the structure and properties of titanium
alloys A Fellon of the Royal Microscopical
Society, he is also honorarq editor of the RIMS
Microscop) Handbooks
One of the pleasures of metallurgy lies in its
historical perspective: the realisation that progress
in understanding the properties of metals and alloys
and the development of new manufacturing and
processing techniques are brought about not so
much by the discovery of the new as by the
rediscovery of old ideas and the reapplication of old
techniques. The notion that we have nothing to
learn from what has been done before-that our
current research and manufacturing problems are
entirely neu and unique-is quite erroneous. (No
doubt it is also erroneous in other applied sciences
and technologies.) This historical aspect of
metallurgy is perhaps nowhere better illustrated
than in the field of superplastic forming which was
discovered or rediscovered only fifty years ago and
which is now a fabrication technique of increasing
importance. particularly for aluminium and titanium
alloys. Starting from sheet material. complex
shapes with smooth surface contours can be made
without the need to weld or rivet many separate
pieces together. Parts now made superplastically
include titanium alloy aircraft wing components.
aluminium alloy casings. shaped architectural
panels and motor car bodies (figure 1).
In order to understand (as far as we are able) the
property of superplasticity and its current appli-
cations we must first discuss the plasticity- the
ductility or malleability - of metals and alloys which
is of course one of the distinguishing properties of
the metallic state. We shall then find that
superplasticity is a high temperature deformation
property associated with alloys having particular
microstructures. Later in the article I shall review
current industrial superplastic fabrication methods
and applications. Finally. we shall see how the
rediscovery of superplasticity has not only led to
the development of advanced manufacturing
techniques but has also provided the key to an
263

Figure 1 Aston-Martin Lagonda car door panel in
aluminium alloy Spural (photography courtesy Superform
Metals Ltd)
understanding of the lost craft or technique by
which Damascus steel sword-blades were forged.
Physical basis of superplasticity
The individual crystals or grains which make up a
metal or alloy structure generally vary between a
micrometre and a millimetre in size. They are
invisible to the naked eye except in some special
cases, for example the ‘speckly’ surface of
unpolished brass door handles. The problem which
physical metallurgists earlier in this century had to
solve was how metals and alloys could deform
without at the same time causing the breakdown of
the crystal structure or the fracture of the crystals
either along the crystal planes or between the
crystal (or grain) boundaries. The problem was of
course solved by the introduction of the concept of
dislocations which represent local regions of misfit
or misregistry in the crystalline structure.
Figure 2 Ball bearing model of grains; GB, grain
boundaries; D, dislocations: v, vacant sites
264
The geometry of the atom arrangements in
crystals, around dislocations and at grain boundaries,
may be represented by a simple two-dimensional
ball bearing model (figure 2). Here the perfect
crystals or grains (where the ball bearings are
hexagonally close packed) can be seen to be
bounded by regions of disorder or misregistry
(grain boundaries) and some of the grains also
contain slight linear deviations from perfect close
packing (dislocations). Under an applied stress
these dislocations move through the crystal
structure, restoring the perfection of the structure
in their wake and resulting overall in the translation
of one part of the crystal with respect to the other.
Deformation is therefore brought about by the
movement (‘glide’ and ‘climb’) of very many
dislocations and their generation and annihiliation
principally at grain boundaries. Dislocations, it is
now realised, also exist in minerals and ceramics
but because of the directed nature of the ionic
bonds between atoms the stress required to move
them is extremely large and moreover generally in
excess of that required to cleave the atoms apart.
Minerals and ceramics are therefore brittle. Physical
metallurgy in the last thirty years or so has largely
been a study of how dislocations move and interact
with other dislocations, grain boundaries and fine
precipitate dispersions both within the grains and
at grain boundaries.
Physical metallurgy has therefore not only led to
a greater understanding of the underlying processes
occurring in metal forming processes - for example
rolling and extrusion at high and low temperatures -
but has provided the basis for alloy development in
terms of alloy chemistry, grain size, precipitate
distributions, etc.
The concept of dislocations moving through the
crystal structure provides the basis therefore of the
observed plasticity of metals and alloys. The
amount of plastic deformation which can be
achieved is not easy to define since it depends very
largely on the nature of the deformation process,
but in simple tensile tests of cylindrical bar or
rod-shaped specimens it is generally of the order of
10-30%. However, in 1934 C E Pearson, an
English metallurgist, reported that bars of a
tin-bismuth alloy (a material of almost no practical
significance) could be extended over 2000% -the
alloy exhibited properties more akin to those of soft
toffee or hot glass! This viscous or glass-like
property was found to occur only when the
individual grains which make up the alloy structure
were less than a micrometre in size. Moreover the
grains underwent no perceptible change in shape or
size from the beginning to the end of the
deformation: they remained ‘equiaxed’ rather than
being elongated as might have been expected.
 Pearson’s discovery was subsequently almost
wholly neglected - the very word superplasticity
used to describe it is a translation from later
Russian work - until it was realised that other,
useful alloys could also be made to exhibit this
property. They could therefore be formed into
shape not only by conventional hot rolling or
extrusion methods but by techniques more akin to
glass-blowing, enabling complex shapes to be made
from sheet material without the need for joining
together many different parts.
There are two aspects to an understanding of
superplastic deformation: the rheological aspect
which explains why bars or sheets of metal can be
extended so much without localised thinning-down
or ‘necking’ (which gives rise to a limited plasticity)
and the physical metallurgical aspect which
explains, or attempts to explain, why fine grained
materials at high temperatures exhibit this property
and indeed whether the property is solely limited to
fine grained materials.
Rheological and metallurgical aspects
Let us examine the rheological aspect first. During
high temperature deformation - that is at tempera-
tures of 0.6Tm or above (where T,,, is the melting
temperature in degrees kelvin)-the flow or
deformation stress increases with the strain or
deformation rate, the relationship usually being
expressed by the empirical equation:
o = Ktm (l)
where 0 is the flow stress, K a temperature
dependent constant, E the strain rate and m the
strain rate sensitivity index. Now the numerical
value of m is important in determining the extent of
plasticity which can be achieved in the extension of
bars or sheets of metal. The reason for this is in
principle very simple. Suppose a neck-a slightly
thinner region - occurs along a bar or in a sheet of
metal. There will be a concentration of stress and
therefore a localised increase in strain rate in this
region. However, a localised increase in strain rate
leads (from equation 1) to a localised increase in
flow stress, the more so the higher the value of m.
The localised increase in flow stress effectively
‘hardens’ the incipient necked region and therefore
Figure 3 Titanium alloy IMI 318 tensile test bars a, before and b, after superplastic deformation
stabilises it against further thinning: the higher the
value of m, the greater is the ‘hardening’ effect and
therefore the greater the extent of plasticity which
can be achieved.
For Newtonian viscous flow m = 1, the flow
stress is directly proportional to the strain rate, any
incipient neck is completely stabilised and very
large extensions (as in glass-blowing) can be
achieved. When the deformation is accommodated
by the movement of dislocations through the
grains, as outlined above, m values of the order of
0.25-0.4 are predicted as well as observed,
incipient necks are not fully stabilised against
further thinning and maximum extensions of the
order of 30% only can be achieved. However, in
superplastic deformation m values of 0.5 and above
are observed and the characteristic large extensions
are obtainable, as shown for example in figure 3
which illustrates superplastic titanium alloy tensile
test bars before and after testing. It should be
noted that in practice the maximum extensions
which can be achieved depend also upon other
factors such as the formation of voids or surface
cracks in the material - but this brings us to the
physical metallurgical aspect of superplastic
deformation.
The high m values characteristic of superplastic
deformation suggest that it occurs by some
combination or balance of Newtonian viscous flow
and dislocation movements and this is indeed the
case.
Metals exhibit Newtonian viscous flow when the
deformation is accommodated by diffusional
movements of atoms - the repeated exchanges of
places between atoms and neighbouring vacant
sites (as illustrated in figure 2 ) . Such movements
are of course enhanced at higher temperatures,
where the concentration of vacancies and thermal
energy of the atoms increase. The effect of an
applied stress is to cause directional, rather than
random diffusional movements, and the net result
is that atoms migrate from one part of the crystal to
another, resulting overall in a strain. Now although
this process represents the basis of viscous flow it
may manifest itself in a number of ways. The
diffusional movements may occur through the
grains; but except for a very high temperature of
265

Figure 4 Ashby-Verrall mechanism for a-c, grain
boundary sliding and d, the possible dislocation/diffusion
paths
0.85Tmor above, and for very fine grain sizes, this
process of diffusional creep is very slow and the
predicted strain rates are very small.
However, the diffusional movements are particu-
larly marked at the grain boundaries which behave
therefore as viscous layers between the grains,
enabling grains under the action of an applied stress
to migrate or slide ‘past each other and again
resulting overall in a strain. The important metallur-
gical factors to be considered in this grain boundary
sliding process are the effects of grain size and
the mechanisms by which sliding grains exchange
neighbours. The finer the grain size, the greater
is the proportion of grain boundary surface area
and hence the greater is ,the effect. This there-
fore explains why superplasticity is generally only
observed in fine grained materials.
The ways in which sliding grains exchange places
is still a matter of controversy. Figure 4 shows one
model, proposed by Ashby and Verrall, for a group
of four grains. Figure 4a shows the initial
configuration, figure 4b the intermediate situation
and figure 4c the final configuration. Note that
Figure 5 Microstructure of IMI in superplastic condition
showing the two-phase structure of equiaxed (Y grains
(light) and p grains (dark). Optical micrograph of
polished and etched section
266
grains A and B have moved together and C and D
apart, resulting in a net change of shape or strain
for this group of four. This model is of course
idealised and it is envisaged that such movements
occur repeatedly throughout the whole grain
structure. The model predicts that the overall grain
shape and size remains unchanged (as is observed)
but that each grain undergoes localised strains or
small changes in shape as it slides from one
neighbour to another as can be seen in figure 4a-c.
If the grains were rigid, voids would necessarily
open up between them. These localised strains
need to occur only in the surface regions of the
grain - or mantle to use a geological analogy - and
can be accommodated by a combination of
diffusional creep (m = 1) and dislocation move-
-
ment ( m 0.3). Hence the observed m values of
0.5 and above represent the net result of a
combination of these two processes. The arrows in
figure 4d show possible paths for the movement of
dislocations and the diffusional fluxes of atoms in
the ‘mantle’ of a grain.
Practical problems
In developing a superplastic alloy there are two
practical problems which must be overcome.
Firstly, a fine grain size is required and secondly at
the moderately high deformation temperatures
involved (0.6Tm or above) grain growth or
coarsening must be prevented or inhibited. Grain
coarsening also occurs by diffusional movements of
atoms across the boundaries from one grain to the
next. The grain boundaries then migrate in the
reverse direction to those of the atom movements
across them; some grains shrink and are eventually
annihilated, others grow and the overall grain size
increases. The process is readily envisaged by
reference to figure 2: small (diffusional) movements
of atoms in the disordered region of the grain
boundary (GB) into ‘registry’ with the close-packed
arrangement of one or other of the grains results in
a net movement of the grain boundary. The
thermodynamic driving force is the reduction in
grain boundary surface energy per unit volume and
it is now possible to observe the process directly
using a high temperature photoemission electron
microscope.
The first problem is solved by controlled
hot-rolling of the alloy which breaks up and refines
the grain size. The second problem is more difficult
and can be tackled in two ways which are
represented in practice by two alloys of commercial
importance-the aluminium alloy Supral (Al-
6%Cu-0.5%Zr) and the titanium alloy IMI 318
(Ti-6%A1-4%V). In Supral (produced by Super-
form Metals Ltd) the zirconium partly combines
with the aluminium to give an intermetallic
compound ZrA13 which under the correct proces-
sing conditions occurs as a fine precipitate or
dispersion about 10 nm in size and distributed
throughout the grains and at the grain boundaries.
These ZrAI3 particles have the effect of pinning or
‘pegging’ the grain boundaries and therefore inhibit
grain growth. The function of the copper in the
alloy is not fully clear: it certainly strengthens the
alloy but may also have an effect upon diffusional
rates.
In IMI 318 (produced by IMI Titanium Ltd) the
vanadium and aluminium give rise to a two-phase
structure consisting of grains of entirely different
crystal structure (figure 5): a grains (with a
hexagonal close-packed crystal structure) and /3
grains (with a body-centred cubic crystal structure).
The aluminium tends to concentrate in the a grains
but the vanadium is almost wholly concentrated in
the /3 grains. In order for grain coarsening to occur
in such a two-phase structure, where the grains
have different compositions, long range diffusional
movements are required; a-0 interphase grain
boundaries cannot simply migrate by the short-
range (few atomic distances) movement of atoms
from one side of the boundary to another, but long
range diffusion of the order of the grain diameter
particularly of vanadium, must occur in order to
maintain the required chemical composition differ-
ences. Long range diffusion is the ‘slow step’ in a
grain growth process and hence grain growth is
inhibited. This was, or is, also the structure in
Pearson’s tin-bismuth alloy which again has a
two-phase structure consisting of tin-rich and
bismuth-rich grains.
Superplastic fabrication methods
Having established the microstructural conditions
for superplasticity, the first requirement is to
ensure that high elongations and high m values are
obtained. m values are normally measured by the
technique of strain-rate cycling tensile test bars
Figure 6 Plot of lg U against lg t- for IMI 318. Each curve
represents the data at a different temperature
Figure 7 Superplastically formed sphere 200 mm in
diameter (right) formed by inflating rim-welded discs
(left) at 900 “C; note the argon gas inlet nozzle
(photograph courtesy British Aerospace)
such as shown in figure 3. The specimen is brought
up to the required temperature in a furnace
mounted on the tensile test machine and a fixed
strain rate i. is imposed on the specimen by the
machine and the stress IJ recorded. E is then
successively increased or decreased in steps and the
stress recorded at each step. The strain rate
sensitivity m is then determined from the slope of a
logarithmic plot of U and E, i.e. from equation (1)
I g u = 1gK + lgd
d(lgu)/d(lgi) = m = slope of curve
A set of data for IMI 318 over a range of
temperatures is shown in figure 6. Note that such
data enable one to determine the optimum strain
rate and temperature ranges for superplastic
deformation. For example it can be seen from
figure 6 that at lower temperatures and higher
strain rates the slope of the curves, and therefore
the m values, decrease below a value of 0.5. In
these regions conventional dislocation controlled
deformation becomes dominant and superplasticity
is lost. The next requirement is to test sheet
material (extended tensile test bars having a limited
practical usefulness!) and this can be accomplished
by simply inflating two circular sheets of the alloy
circumferentially welded round the edge. Figure 7
shows such a specimen (left) with a gas pressure
pipe inlet nozzle in the middle and the resultant
perfect sphere (right).
More complex shapes can be made by inflating a
sheet of the alloy into a cavity or mould of the
required shape and figure 8 shows diagramatically
one possible arrangement for Supral. This is the
basis by which parts such as are illustrated in figure
1 are made. Needless to say the practical problems
are those of ensuring proper control over
temperature and gas pressure (i.e. strain rate) and
in the case of titanium alloys there is the further
requirement of preventing oxidation - the compo-
267

a routes. The second development concerns mod-
Toot
plate
/
b short space of time and a perfect joint is made.
Figure 8 Schematic diagram of superplastic forming
process for Supral; a, sheet of alloy is clamped around its
edges in a heated mould (or muffle box) and b. a gentle
air pressure blows out the sheet and forces it into the
shape of the mould @holograph courtesy Superform
Metals L i d )
nent must be kept in an argon environment in its
moulding box and the whole enclosed within a large
uniform temperature furnace.
There are three aspects to the further develop-
ment of superplasticity as a fabrication method.
The first is cost. Superplasticity, compared for
example with sheet-stamping, is a relatively slow
forming process and is currently limited to
'medium-run' or high-cost parts in which the
advantages of fewer joints and reduction in weight
in complex shapes set a premium. Secondly, mould
design must be such as to avoid any preferential
thinning round sharp radii of curvature and this is a
field in which great ingenuity has been rewarded
with great success.
Thirdly, metallurgical research into new and
improved superplastic alloys is a very wide field and
mention will be made of only three developments.
One of the problems associated with Supral was the
initiation and growth of voids or holes in the alloy
at the grain-growth inhibiting ZrA13 particles - a
268
problem which is now being overcome by slight
modifications in alloy chemistry and processing
ifications to the alloy content of IMI 318 and here it
is found that small additions (1% of cobalt or
nickel) enhance the superplastic properties such
that in principle the process could be carried out at
lower temperatures (-825 "C) with the concomitant
reduction in the problem of oxidation. These
alloying elements owe their effect both to changes
in the properties of the CY and p phases and to the
fact that they enhance the diffusional flow of atoms
around grain boundaries. Thirdly, and most
importantly. superplastic forming for titanium
alloys is now being combined in one operation with
a joining process: atoms diffuse across the interface
in exactly the same way as they do across a grain
boundary. the interface is then annihilated in a very
Figure 9 shows a joint in an engine bay
nozzle panel which is made by diffusion bonding
corrugated and flat titanium alloy sheets. The inset
micrograph shows that all trace of the original sheet
surfaces has disappeared. The opportunities pro-
vided by this technique for highly sophisticated
designs are enormous.
Damascus steels
'The best of the new is often the long forgotten
past'.
This old Russian proverb brings us back to our
starting point because the discovery - or rediscov-
ery-of superplasticity has not only led to the
development of the most advanced manufacturing
techniques but has also provided the key to an
understanding of the lost craft by which Damascus
steels were made. Damascus steels, so called
because they were first encountered by Europeans
there. have been used for making swords and
armour probably from the time of Alexander the
Great. By the time of the Crusades Damascus
swords were famous for their strength. toughness
and retention of a fine cutting edge. However, the
metallurgy of Damascus steels has been shrouded
in mystery. It was known that the basic
material - small cakes or castings called Wootz -
originated from India. The first modern study of
Wootz was made by G Pearson, who presented his
findings to the Royal Society in 1795. Subsequently
D Mushet concluded (correctly) in 1804 that Wootz
contained a much higher percentage of carbon than
the cast steels then available in England.
Thereafter Wootz was studied by Michael Faraday
among others but the greatest step forward in
understanding its nature was made by Jean Robert
Breant, Inspector of Assays at the Paris Mint who
in 1824 published a Description for a Process f o r

Figure 9 Superplastically formed and diffusion bonded
engine bay nozzle panel with inset micrograph showing
diffusion bonded joint (photograph courtesy British
Aerospace)
Making Damasked Steel in which he correctly
identified the microstructural constituents.
It is the high carbon content - typically between
1% and 2% (in comparison with the 0.6-0.8% of
‘plain carbon’ cutlery steels) -which is the charac-
teristic feature of Wootz and it is surmised that this
was achieved by the prolonged heating of a mixture
of iron sponge and charcoal at a temperature
insufficient to cause complete melting but sufficient
to allow a diffusion of the carbon into the iron. In
steels at room temperature a very small amount
(0.01%) of carbon is dissolved in the iron; the
resulting solid solution, in which the small carbon
atoms occupy the holes or interstices between the
larger iron atoms, is called ferrite. The rest of the
carbon combines chemically with the iron to form a
compound Fe$ (cementite) or ‘carburetted steel’
to use Breant’s description. Cementite is hard and
brittle and occurs in Wootz, as well as in modern
‘ultra-high carbon’ cast steels, as coarse angular
needles or platelets throughout the iron matrix
making the steel very difficult to forge. At high
temperatures it crumbles under the hammer and at
low temperatures it splits and cracks along the
cementite platelets.
The problem that the Damascus swordsmiths had
to overcome was to control both the forging
temperature and severity of forging in order to
break down the angular cementite platelets into
equiaxed grains or particles without at the same
time cracking or crumbling the steel. It is the same
problem which faces the forgers of ultra high
carbon steels today and is overcome not by forging
the steels at the highest temperatures (as might be
expected) but by forging in a moderately low and
moreover narrow temperature range, approximate-
ly 800-900 “C. Furthermore the forging strain rate
needs to be slow and carefully controlled. In this
way it is found that the steel is broken down to a
fine (0.5 pm) two-phase structure of iron and
equiaxed cementite grains - not dissimilar to the
fine equiaxed two-phase microstructures character-
istic of superplastic titanium alloys and Pearson’s
tin-bismuth alloy. In this condition the steel
becomes ductile and easily forgeable and on
cooling down to room temperature hard and tough.
There is now little doubt that the ancient
swordsmiths evolved a similar forging technique,
whereby the deformation was governed, as in the
case of modern superplastic alloys, by grain
boundary sliding processes. The cycle from
Saracenic craft to aerospace fabrication is com-
plete!
Further reading
The general problem of the deformation of metals
in terms of the movement of dislocations, diffusion
and grain boundary sliding is covered in many
excellent metallurgy textbooks, e.g. Reed-Hill
(1964), Smallman (1970) and Rollason (1973).
These books also cover the basic principles of alloy
chemistry and the role of precipitates, etc. Of the
many papers concerned with the mechanisms of
superplasticity the most useful are those by Ashby
and Verrall (1973) and Gifkins (1978). It will be
seen from these papers that the precise mechanisms
and microstructural conditions for the occurrence
of superplastic flow are by no means fully
understood - there is for example the possibility
that the phenomenon occurs in some large-grained
single phase p titanium alloys given certain
dislocation configurations within the grains. These
matters, and the applications of superplasticity in a
wide range of alloys are covered in Paton and
Hamilton (1982). Finally, the metallurgy of the
Damascus steels is discussed in an excellent review
by Wadsworth and Sherby (1982). This paper not
only discusses the role of superplasticity in the
forging of these steels but also covers tempering
treatments and the origin of the damask patterns by
which Damascus swords are recognised.
References
Ashby M F and Verrall R A 1973 Acta Metallurgica 21
149
Gifkins R C 1978 J. Mater. Sci. 13 1926
Paton N E and Hamilton C H (eds) 1982 Superplastic
Forming of Structural Alloys (Metallurgical Society of
AIME)
Reed-Hill R E 1964 Physical Metallurgy Principles (New
York: Van Nostrand)
Rollason E C 1973 Metallurgy for Engineers (London:
Edward Arnold)
Smallman R E 1970 Modern Physical Metallurgy
(Sevenoaks: Butterworth)
Wadsworth J and Sherby 0 D 1982 ‘On the
Bulat-Damascus steels revisited’ Prog. Mater. Sci. 25
35
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