The classic research of Pearson in 1934, where an elongation of 1950% was recorded in a Bi-Sn eutectic alloy, marked the onset of laboratory research in the field of superplastic flow. Since that time, superplasticity has flourished both as an active and vigorous research field and as an important process for use in industrial forming operations. This presentation at ICSAM-10, held exactly seventy-five years after the experiments of Pearson, is designed both to review some of the achievements recorded in superplasticity over the last seven decades and to look forward to the new developments that are now becoming available with the production of ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials using processes based on the application of severe plastic deformation. These UFG metals have grain sizes that are significantly smaller, by about an order of magnitude, than conventional superplastic alloys and accordingly they provide a potential for achieving remarkable ductilities at very rapid strain rates that are outside of the normal regime of superplastic flow.
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