The microstructural and mechanical understanding of flowformed F1E

Flow / shear forming capability at the AFRC at Strathclyde has been assessed in a previous EngD project supervised at Swansea UTC (Mr Costa Coleman 2012-2016). During that project, processing parameters were optimised for the production of shaft/struct/cone components in SCMV and IN718 alloys. The influence of the forming process on microstrural and textural evolution was studied and then related to the mechanical properties. Crucial to future investigations, novel techniques and specimen designs were developed to enable tensile, fatigue, fatigue crack growth and creep assessments.
The expertise developed at Swansea will now be applied to the advanced steel F1E in flow/shear formed variants. The suitability of the alloy for such processing and any subsequent refinement of microstructure will be defined through forming trials at AFRC. Swansea will then characterise the resulting modified microstructures and carry out mechanical testing of conventional F1e vs flow formed F1e utilising the techniques optimised from the previous work. In addition to the work previously carried out a look at small test piece design will be investigated to see if anisotropy or any directionality could be characterised in a meaningful way. It is thought that the refinement of the current F1e microstructure will modify the mechanical properties.