Manufacture of high-quality ribbed titanium panels

Abstract

Titanium alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry on account of their high strength, fatigue strength, impact strength, and corrosion resistance. Airplane components such as ribbed panels must satisfy strict requirements on the quality of weld joints and the dimensional precision. The welding of titanium alloys leads to the formation of flaws at the joint and impairs the performance of the part; their geometric dimensions are distorted on account of the welding stress; pores and microstress appear in the seam; and the mechanical and other characteristics are impaired. That calls for comprehensive analysis of the manufacture of ribbed titanium panels, all the way to the heat treatment of the final product, so as to discover the processes that are most likely to generate defects. The manufacture of the workpieces—including their preparation for welding, the welding conditions, and subsequent heat treatment—affects the static and cyclic strength of welded ribbed panels, with variation in the number of weld-seam defects and their total area. The results obtained in the present work permit prediction of the properties and reliability of welded structures and the maintenance of identical properties of the basic metal and the seam metal, with the guaranteed absence of external and internal effects, on the basis of the selected production processes. It is found that the properties and reliability of weld joints will match those of the basic VT20 titanium alloy in ribbed panels in the following conditions: welding with specific cooling rate in the phase-transition temperature range; final milling, turning, degreasing, and drying of the surface of the joined edges; light annealing after welding in air; subsequent sandblasting; and gas-laser layout cutting in a nitrogen or argon atmosphere, with or without milling.