Well to day I welded Titanium for the first time.
I had my camera to so I got some pictures.
Here is all the details and pics.
I got some action shots with fire and sparks.
Page 10 aero space metals fabrication. That link goes straight to the new page is it kind of short and should load fast.
I have found several uses for Titanium: lighter stronger chasses parts like torque arms and lowe controal arms, personal armor plating (cheaper beta alloys thay you can't weld very good), bolt on reinforcements like STB's and may be an engine bracket or 2.
I just want people to know it's not some dark art that only a select few can learn to do.

 

Mmmmmm... titanium. Man if you had and engine made completely of it (block, rods, pistons, caps, etc.) you could punish that thing with any amount of nitrous or boost and make horendous power... and not phase it one bit. I had the opportunity last semester to do some work with titanium in sturcutural mechanics and it's amazing how strong it is for its unit weight.

 

Four bucks a pound,
limits Ti's use to high end apps.

 

Ebay is my source for all.
One guy titaniumjoe has it all.

 

For your sake, I hope I'm wrong with everything I'm about to type.

Please do not think about using these parts in any sort of structural application. Titanium is a very reactive metal at high temperatures, and as such needs to be welded only under a complete blanket of inert gas. For tubes, this means sealing the ends and flooding the inside with gas. Small non-enclosed structures need to be welded in an argon-filled glovebox <insert lame joke here>. For larger components, some means of protecting the back side of the weld needs to be provided; my understanding is that boilermakers have manifolds that can be used to purge the opposite side of the weld on really large structures, like chemical storage tanks.

The weld also needs to be extremely clean, due to titanium's tendency to contaminate itself with damn near anything around it. I believe that hydrogen (from hydrocarbons, like oil) is very dangerous to titanium welds, even in extremely small amounts. Obviously, hydrocarbons can be a source of oxygen as well.

Sometimes, these problems won't show up for months or years down the road. Just look at all those crappy Chinese titanium bike frames from the late 90s (I'd expect that newer ones would be better).

Hopefully, this information doesn't apply to the alloys that you're using, or that I missed something from the photos that you posted.

Fast Caddie - keep in mind that although titanium is very strong for its weight, it still has less strength per unit volume. That limits its usage somewhat. I've seen a lot of cases in the cycling world where titanium was substituted for a high-quality steel without any dimensional changes. Needless to say, bad things happen if the original part wasn't overdesigned. But, yea, it sure would be cool to see what kind of a motor you could build using exotic materials! Too bad F1 restricts this sort of thing

 

I have yet to read any thing about hydrogen and Ti welds.
Now Aluminium absorbs H real bad and will bubble if it absorbs to much and cools to fast. My Alloys have 6% to 3% Al in them so yes this can absorb H.
Did you read the new addition to pg 10?
I modified my welder with a switch mainly so I could purge an argon box, the inside of tubing and blow Ar on hot welds.
I am also modifing a gas nosel with a fitting that I will hook a line up and shield the under side of sheet, plate and the inside of tube welds . It will look weard but should work great and make great welds.
I did the open air weld just to see what would hapen. Pure base line.
I will be useing an argon box around my welds when I weld some thing that will be used.
I plan for a Ti fabrication job to take all day mainly from taping and building argon containment compartments around joints, welding and moving them around the weld.

 

I noticed that by looking though some of my old material. Although i'm not very familiar with the metal content of most engine parts, I was mainly comparing it to most of the other structral steel used in construction. Structual A-36 alloy has E and G values of 29M psi and 11M psi, respectively. Comparing those to the TiA1-4V titanium with E and G values of 17.4M and 6.4M, it isn't quite as stiff. But it's yield strength is nearly triple that of A-36 and the ultimate strength is more than double. And it's alpha value is smaller by one unit per degree F. How do these values compare to those in most engine parts? Will titanium flex too much? Will the lower thermal expansion coefficient of titanium allow tighter clearances?

i know OldSStroker is well versed in automotive structural apps, so maybe he'll have some input...

 

I couldn't resist...

GTAW is where it's at for welding titanium, also, I suggest you use 100% Argon shielding gas if you aren't already.

Here's some links to get you going and might be some good reading for anyone else who cares.

http://www.timet.com/fab-p27.htm

http://www2.thefabricator.com/Articl...ive.cfm?ID=878

http://www.twi.co.uk/j32k/protected/band_3/jk24.html

http://www.twi.co.uk/j32k/unprotecte...weldtis01.html

The last one has an excellent guide linked at the bottom, but you have to register to view it. It's free though.

Welding is a funny thing I've found. Since so many people have done it in one form or another there is a lot of misinformation out there and everyone thinks they're a pro at it.

Kind of like building engines or cars I guess.

 

Funny, but I am just rereading Tom Clancy's book The Hunt for Red October. The Russian Alpha attack boats were Ti hulled, according to Clancy. They were a bitch to fabricate, and in the book, I believe they used Ti pipes for the very high pressure reactor, and a weld cracked, big reactor accident and they lost the boat. It's one of my favorite reads.

CIA/USAF "Blackbirds" aka A-11, YF-12 and SR-71 were mainly Ti and designed in the early 60's. Lockheed "Skunk Works" had major headaches fabricating them. The invented much of the technology of forming, forging and even machining the stuff. They used it for it's heat resisting properties due to aero heating at Mach 3+ and to replace aluminum.

There's no free lunch: almost any material with high strength or high strength/weight ratio or high heat resisting properties come with problems of cost, fabrication, and endurance problems, as well as all the stuff mentioned above.

Use Ti when it's the best material for the job, and legal by the rules you are following. The same applies to other exotics, like unobtanium.

4 bucks a pound for Ti? Think more like $75 to over $100 a pound in small quantities of rod or bar.

 

yes! Teflon tape isn't a gasket.

 

The only gas I have is pure Argon.

 

It is better to use machined billet titanum parts than to try to weld up pieces to make a piece.Now you are talking HEAVY bucks.
Don't know your make up of what you are using,but like titanum rods are water cut to keep the heat away from it.When Crower was flame cutting their rods they were at least 1/2" bigger than the finished product to keep the heat out of the rod when it was machined to size.The high heated part was machined off and left on the floor.

 

Theres to many miths about this stuff.
Read these links.
This one is the appcation of Ti-6Al-4V and basicly Ti-4Al-2.5V
http://www.key-to-metals.com/Article86.htm
I don't think I have the money to make a billit torque arm, or Lower Control Arms.

 

And this one too.
http://www.key-to-metals.com/Article28.htm
Welding of Ti.

 

I am just trying to relay what I know about what the people who sell this and use it to build cars do.They have engineers who KNOW what to do with it and how it works.Sooooo read on and decide for yourself. This stuff is NOT easy to work with.