A significant accomplishment of the program 

 was that two new thermomechanical treatments 

 (TMT) resulted for high-strength aluminum alloys. 

 The importance of this accomplishment is that 

 7XXX ("seven thousand") series aluminum al- 

 loys, which are major "work-horse" structural 

 alloys, can now be produced having superior 

 combinations of properties (strength, ductility, 

 toughness, and fatigue and corrosion resistance) 

 unmatched by existing commercial alloys. Follow- 

 on development, and manufacturing methods and 

 technology programs have developed TMT for 

 thicker sections through in-house efforts at 

 Frankford Arsenal and contractual efforts at Al- 

 coa and Boeing Vertol, for such applications as 

 lightweight armor and helicopter forgings. 



The in-house research effort was performed at 

 the Pitman-Dunn Labs of Frankford Arsenal, and 

 the Italian program was funded through the 

 Army's European Research Office. 



Patents: 



3706606: E. DiRusso and M. Conserva. Thermomechanical 

 Treatment Procedures for Heat Treatable Aluminum Alloys. 



3743549: E. DiRusso. M. Buratii and M. Conserva. Thermo- 

 mechanical Process for Improving the Toughness of High 

 Strength Aluminum Alloys. 



Publications: 



E. DiRusso, M. Conserva, F. Gatto, and H. Markus, Thermo- 

 mechanical Treatments of High Strength Al-Zn-Mg (Cu) Al- 

 loys, Met. Trans., Vol 4. April 1973, pp 1133-1144. 



E. DiRusso. M. Conserva. M. Buratti. and F. Gatto. A New 

 Thermomechanical Procedure for Improving the Ductility and 

 Toughness of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys, Materials Sci. and Eng.. 

 April 1974. Vol 14. No. I. pp 23-26. 



New Classes of Permanent Magnetic 

 Materials 



Research by W. E. Wallace and R. S. Craig at 

 the University of Pittsburgh sponsored by the 

 U.S. Army Research Office on the magnetic prop- 

 erties of a class of compounds called rare earth 

 intermetallics has been coupled with military and 

 industrial research and development to result in a 

 new group of materials for permanent magnets. 

 The most powerful of these, a compound of sa- 

 marium and cobalt (called SAMCO), has a mag- 

 netic energy product (a measure of the magnetic 

 strength of a permanent magnet) five times that of 

 the best conventional permanent magnets. This 

 high-energy product allows large reductions in 

 size and weight with improvement in performance 

 reliability. The Army currently uses these mag- 

 nets in engine alternators for helicopters, and they 

 are projected for use in the guidance system of 

 the SAM-D missile. Other potential Army applica- 

 tions include electrical generators and motors, 

 fuses, and fuel cell components. 



62 DEFENSE 



References: 



Proceedings of the 12th Rare Earth Research Conference. July 

 18-22, 1976. Vols 1 and 2. 



W. E. Wallace. Rare Earth intermetallics. Materials Science 

 Series. Academic Press. Inc.. 1973. 



E. A. Nesbitt and J. H. Wernick. Rare Earth Permanent Mag- 

 nets. Materials Science Series. Academic Press, inc.. 1973. 



Research on Fluidics 



The capability to use fluidics in high perform- 

 ance systems has been enhanced significantly by 

 research on the laminar proportional amplifier 

 (LPA) conducted at the Harry Diamond Laborato- 

 ries (HDL). Fluid mechanics techniques from first 

 principles were used to investigate the flow phe- 

 nomena in fluidic components. Expanded experi- 

 mental facilities were used for flow visualization, 

 and dynamic and transient response measurements 

 of the LPA. Computer codes were investigated for 

 developing algorithms. 



The initial LPA study was reported in 1972 by 

 HDL scientists. The first use of the developed 

 algorithms for system design was reported at the 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers winter 

 meeting in 1975, and the algorithms became uni- 

 versally available in 1976. These algorithms, along 

 with circuit techniques, were used to reduce the 

 temperature sensitivity of hydraulic fluidic sys- 

 tems. The close coupling of fluidic research and 

 system needs resulted in the use of LPA's in ad- 

 vanced military applications such as the UTTAS 

 helicopter and in current development efforts on 

 gun stabilization and turbine fuel control. These 

 precision control devices are now commercially 

 available, and projected use in temperature moni- 

 toring systems may save considerable energy in 

 process control. 



Military savings of $20 million have already 

 been achieved, and the potential savings could 

 easily exceed the total amount of R&D dollars 

 that have been expended in fluidics. 



References: 



Carter. V. and Marsh, D. S.. HDI.-TR-149S, A Bibliography 

 on Fluidics, Revision B, April 1972. 



Proceedings of the Fluidic State of the Art Symposium. .Sep- 

 tember-October 1974. Volumes 1-Vi. 



Fleming. W. T. and Gamble. H. R.. HDL-CR-76-()92-l . Relia- 

 bility Data for Fluidic Systems. December 1976. 



Joyce. J. W.. Manufacturing/Production-Line Applications of 

 Fluidics. October 1975. 



