SPITFIRE-1

The purpose of this effort is to develop low-cost rapid forming superplastic aluminum that will be evaluated in pilot production trials for automotive SPF components. The alloy development study conducted under SPITFIRE-1 showed that the addition of CU or Mn to the base 5083 aluminum alloy refined the grain size, leading to enhanced superplastic properties. In SPITFIRE-2, these alloy variants will be further refined and studied to meet the target properties established earlier in the program. Mechanical properties, component forming and post-forming properties will be evaluated. Also, the alloy production process, including thermomechanical processing (TMP) optimization to reduce production cost, will be investigated during SPITFIRE-2. After identifying preferred compositions and production processing, the most promising alloy will be manufactured into production coils for verification during SPITFIRE-3. Components will be produced from these coils in SPITFIRE-4, and the process and component performance will be assessed.