Excerpts on the history of superplasticity state of metal systems

The article presents a retrospective of the formation and development of one of the unique phenomena in metal science and metal physics – superplasticity. The paper gives historical background on the use of large plastic deformations in the early technologies of human society. It delineates a range of superplastic materials. The article provides a list of the basic studies in the field of superplasticity mechanics, as well as the science and physics of superplastic materials. The paper explains the role of the first experiments by Henri Edouard Tresca, Barre de Saint-Venant, G. D. Bengough. The article presents the following authors as pioneers of superplasticity: S.E. Pearson, who is the author of the first well-known scientific paper on superplasticity, and the Soviet scientists – academician A. A. Bochvar and Z. A. Sviderskaya, who are the authors of the term ‘superplasticity’. The article describes the current state of research in the field of superplasticity of metal systems (metals, steels, non-ferrous alloys), as well as the importance of using the phenomenon of superplasticity in industrial technologies when creating resource-saving processes: processing of metals and alloys by pressure (filter-free drawing, vacuum and gas forming, volumetric deformation and forming); volume stamping of tool carbon and high-alloy metal-cutting steels and powder alloys; chemical-thermal, thermocyclic, thermomechanical and thermal treatments of metal, composite and metal-ceramic materials; welding of metals by pressure in a solid state; production of fibrous composite materials by rolling or hot pressing of packages made of superplastic metal foils between which there are rows of high-strength ceramic fibers. As the examples of low-waste technologies, the authors refer to the developed at the Institution of Russian Academy of Sciences A.A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science RАS low-waste processes of superplastic deformation of high-speed steels of different metallurgical nature and low-pass processes of processing of high-speed steel powders obtained by spraying or from chip waste into tool blanks of various profiles.