Superplastic forming and diffusion bonding (SPF/DB) processes have been growing
mature and titanium SPF/DB components have found wide application in aerospace industry. With
the development of industrial SPF/DB technology, the size of SPF/DB components become bigger
and bigger, and the shapes of components become more complex. However, the component sizes are
limited by equipments, dies and the size of sheet. SPF/DB combined with welding technologies could
be one of the possible solutions to form larger and more integrated structures due to many advantages
compared with conventional process. This paper studied the combination processing of SPF and other
welding methods besides diffusion bonding, such as electron beam welding and laser beam welding,
and explained the experiments performed in different processes, including SPF after welding plate
and welding plate after SPF. The results show that the material exhibits both reasonable formability
and excellent mechanical properties. Application samples such as covers were manufactured by the
combination processing. Furthermore, prospects of the combining technology were discussed at the
end of paper.
