MILITARY, AEROSPACE & DEFENCE INDUSTRY FOCUS


DEVELOPING NON-PRECIOUS METAL ALLOYS According to NASA, the average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is $450 million per mission. The Space Shuttle Endeavour, the orbiter built to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger, cost $1.7 billion USD. Reducing costs is therefore necessary to keep space missions feasible – and one key way is to reduce the use of precious metal braze alloys. Precious metals like gold and palladium are becoming increasingly scarce, so the cost of producing alloys from these precious metals is also increasing. However, years of research, development and data means these alloys are tested and reliable – and reliability becomes an overarching objective. Over many years, Morgan’s Braze Alloys


spacecraft’s engine, enabling mission control and crew to accurately read and measure data and output on such things as fuel efficiency, temperature and gas flow; and monitoring for fire detection or abnormalities. If these sensors are


placed too far away from the engines, then data readings become inaccurate. As an example, a two-man space


‘Active alloys’ join ceramic sensors to engines


crew had to abort their flight to the ISS after a post-rocket launch failure. The Soyuz spacecraft started to experience failure 119 seconds into the flight, with problems reported by the crew including feelings of


business has been researching and developing non-precious metal alloys. As seen from the RI-46 and RI-49 alloys, these solutions are just as strong as their equivalent high precious- metal counterparts, but at a fraction of the cost. Non-precious metal alloys can be made


from metals like nickel, chromium and cobalt. Their success has already been seen in the aerospace sector, and now research is being pioneered into making them fit for going into orbit and beyond.


THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIABILITY There is a growing commercial aspect for space travel, with Richard Branson and Elon Musk pioneering private space travel, for example. Achieving this dream is, of course, hinged on safety and reliability. The key to improving these factors is being able to place sensors as close as possible to the


weightlessness, an indication of a problem during that early stage of the flight. Luckily they aborted, ejected their capsule from the rocket and returned safely to Earth. Such situations should not be happening – any problems should be picked up by mission control, and not be reliant on crew judgement. The challenge though is that some sensors are made from ceramic, due to the need to resist corrosion and high temperatures, typically up to 950˚C (1742˚F). However, these ceramic sensors then need to be joined to metallic parts of the engine. This is where ‘active


alloys’ come in. Unlike regular braze alloys that join metal to metal, these alloys can join metal to ceramic, or even ceramic to


ceramic. Industry standard active alloys – like Incusil-ABA and Ticusil from Morgan’s range – were developed up to 40 years ago but are still in use today. New alloys are also currently in development to withstand much higher temperatures.


A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE Morgan Advanced Materials is not just committed to making the space industry more sustainable and safer, but it is helping with applications across all industries. A key pillar of this is through the company’s highly specialised Metals and Joining Centre of Excellence (CoE), based in Hayward, California, as well as its Brazing Department. With highly trained researchers and scientists,


Morgan’s Braze Alloys business can custom cater alloys to specific applications, and run trials to test materials, braze cycles and fixturing. The whole operation, from powder atomization, to preform fabrication and brazing trials, can be looked after from start to finish. One of the latest developments being


pioneered at the Metals and Joining CoE is Flexicore. This new technology transforms traditionally brittle alloys (such as AMS4777) into a flexible wire form. In many cases, this will be far superior to pastes in terms of repeatability and ease of use. Along with the operational benefits, Flexicore will also allow for the use of nickel-based alloys to replace precious-metal alloys. Again, this will help to bring costs down for operators and manufacturers.


Wire form braze alloys


Morgan Advanced Materials www.morganbrazealloys.com


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