Comparison of different titanium alloys welded by Yb:YAG fibre laser for thin sheet applications used for T-ducts in bleed air systems

Research in aerospace applications includes the replacement of well-known materials by newly developed alloys or by new manufacturing methods for the existing materials. In the frame of TiB-Air project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) the development of a process chain consisting of deep drawing at elevated temperatures, chemical milling, contour machining by laser cutting and laser beam welding to produce pneumatic T-ducts used in bleed air systems is in focus. This production process of sheet metal parts could lower costs in terms of the process itself and the used materials: low alloyed Ti-alloys. Commercially pure titanium alloy (cp-Ti) is commonly used for these structures because of its balanced mechanical properties regarding tensile strength, yield strength, plastic strain and fatigue strength as well as good resistance against corrosion and oxidation. The possibility to substitute cp-Ti by low-alloyed Ti-alloys is examined in this work, by the comparison of two different low alloyed Ti-alloys, namely KS1.2ASN and Ti XT, with a cp-Ti alloy (Grade 4). Mechanical properties of the base materials, their weldability and the mechanical assessment of the laser beam welded butt joints in terms of static, cyclic and fracture mechanical behaviour is compared for sheet materials, with a thickness of 0.9 mm. Defect-free welding according to EN13919 acceptance criteria B was possible for all three alloys, no porosity problems occurred. The low strength alloy KS1.2ASN exhibited mechanical anisotropy between longitudinal direction and transverse direction in the tensile test, welded specimens of this alloy broke in the base material. Due to the tensile properties, both weld and base material of KS1.2ASN showed the least values for the fatigue strength and endurance limit strength. Ti XT and Grade 4 showed similar mechanical anisotropy and fractured in the base material, too. Fatigue strength of Ti XT is below Grade 4, but for the 50%-percentile the endurance limit strength is equal. Fracture mechanical testing showed that KS1.2ASN is a very promising alloy in the welded condition.