High Strain Rate Blow Formability of Newly Developed Al-Mg-High-Mn Alloy

Abstract

Blow forming accompanied with superplasticity makes possible the forming of complex parts, which cannot be formed by cold press forming. The conventional superplastic AA5083 alloy ‘ALNOVI-1’ developed by the Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corp. shows high superplasticity because of its fine grain and is widely used for blow forming. However, for mass production of components, an Al-Mg alloy with finer-sized grains is needed. In this research, the newly developed high Mn version of the Al-Mg alloy ‘ALNOVI-U’ is used, and this material possesses grains finer than those of the conventional AA5083 alloy. The effects of finer grain size on the blow formability at high strain rates over 10-2/s and the properties of the resulting moldings were studied.