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Indigenization of high-strength, light-weight Al-Li alloys for aerospace

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Abstract

A research programme was initiated at the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, a decade ago for the indigenous development of Al-Li alloys in order to finally meet the requirements of the space and aircrft industries in the country. This paper describes the systematic studies carried out in the laboratory to overcome the initial difficulties in producing sound ingots, optimize the subsequent heat treatments and processing schedules, and to finally obtain reproducible microstructure and mechanical properties in the semi products (i.e. sheets and extrusions) developed. Laboratory-scale sheet and extrusion products meet tensile property specification of 8090 alloy. One of these semiproducts, i.e. round bar extrusion, is currently being supplied for the stallite programmes. Commercial-scale sheet products made in Russia under an Indo-Russian joint programme have been made available for the aircraft programme. Recent alloy development studies in the laboratory are discussed within the context of the present paper.

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  1. Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, 500 258, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad, India

    C R Chakravorty

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Chakravorty, C.R. Indigenization of high-strength, light-weight Al-Li alloys for aerospace. Bull. Mater. Sci. 17, 1351–1367 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02747233

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