Swales Aerospace

Patrick Bourke

Charles J Stouffer

James M Marder

Lawrence H Ryczek

A process of bonding metal parts to one another to form seamless, hollow metal articles, particularly made from beryllium. Tooling is assembled to the parts, prior to hot pressing, to cause pressure to be applied to selective portions of the parts. The parts, assembled together with the tooling, are then subjected to hot isostatic pressing at a temperature of about 1700&deg; F. to 1750&deg; F., and at a pressure of about 2000 psi to 2500 psi, for around 3 hours. The tooling surrounding the metal parts functions to limit the amount of compression of the parts. Articles formed by this process are particularly useful in space flight applications because they are formed of a homogeneous material. Strength of the bond is enhanced because no filler metal is used. The absence of a filler metal also eliminates any thermal stress problems as a result of differences in coefficients of thermal expansion.

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Laurel, MD, United States of America

Patrick Bourke