High Temperature Titanium Alloys & Components

MRL has successfully developed indigenous technologies for the production and thermo-mechanical processing of high temperature titanium alloys for aerospace applications in collaboration with MIDHANI, Hyderabad, and HAL, Bengaluru. Indigenous technologies to produce alloys such as DMR OT4-1, GTM 900, TITAN 26A and TITAN 29A have been established and several critical class-I components for Adour (Jaguar aircraft) and Kaveri aircraft engines have been realised. Isothermal and hot forging technologies have been developed to produce various high pressure rotor components such as compressor discs, blades, shafts, connector rings and blisks. Isothermal forging technology for manufacturing critical components (discs and shafts) using titanium alloys, Titan 26A and 29A, for Adour and Kaveri engines has been developed.

Titanium Alloy Air Bottles

With the right microstructure, temperature and strain rate, many alloys can be blown like glass into desired shapes just by gas or air pressure. Such effortless stretching, called Super Plastic Forming (SPF), can be applied for the manufacturing of near-net shape components with substantial cost benefits. DMRL has made significant contributions to the R&D of SPF and achieved tensile elongations as high as 1700 per cent in a titanium alloy. The process has been applied to titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) gas bottles required in large numbers in aerospace systems. The bottles have been extensively tested and found acceptable as replacements for conventionally forged and machined bottles. Based on this, a production facility for manufacture of such SPF bottles has been set up at MIDHANI.