Why Titanium? 

 

Titanium (Periodic Table Element 22) has a unique combination of mechanical,  corrosion resistant, cryogenic and elevated temperature properties.  As an engineering material, titanium has the highest strength to weight ratio of any other metal.  For applications which can benefit from lower reciprocating mass with suitable strength, titanium will outperform other materials.

 

 

Is Titanium Expensive? 

 

As a major producer of titanium powder, Global Titanium’s press and sinter components compete favorably with ferrous alloys on price and performance.

 

 

What are titanium’s heat transfer characteristics? 

 

Titanium is frequently used in heat exchangers for fluid heating and cooling especially in corrosive environments.

 

 

What are some other attractive properties of Titanium? 

 

Titanium has exceptional erosion resistance, high fatigue strength, good fracture toughness, and a low coefficient of expansion.  Titanium is essentially non-magnetic and is non-toxic and biocompatible.

 

 

What is Titanium HDH Powder? 

 

Titanium powder can be made by a process known as Hydride-Dehydride. Because Titaium has an affinity for hydrogen, it can be heated in a vacuum chamber and made brittle by backfilling the chamber with hydrogen to form titanium hydride (TiH2). The TiH2 is then crushed to fine powder and returned to the vacuum chamber which removes the hydrogen. The finish product is a high purity titanium powder. 

 

 

What is meant by Near Net Shapes?

 

When titanium powder is compacted, some finish machining is typically required on features that require close tolerances such as hole locations, mounting surfaces, complex coring, diameters, overall length and fine finish.  The pressed shape is “near net” if it requires secondary machining.

 

 

What is meant by Net Shapes?

 

For configurations that do not have close tolerance features, Global Titanium can compact titanium powder to meet design intent, without secondary machining.  The pressed shape is “net” to the blue print.

 

 

What is Press and Sinter?

 

By compacting titanium powder under high pressure, Global Titanium can form components that have sufficient strength to be handled like solid metal parts.  Sinteringrefers to a process whereby the powder compacts are placed in a vacuum at elevated temperature for several hours to achieve near 100% density by diffusion bonding of the powder particles thus creating mechanical properties similar to billet or bar stock.

 

 

What is Green Strength?

 

Green strength refers to the strength of compacts upon pressing of titanium powder in a die.  Global Titanium powder compacts have sufficient “green strength” to be machined in the “green” state.

 

 

What is Green Machining?

 

Because Global Titanium compacts have relatively high green strength, near net shape components can be machined prior to sintering thus reducing the cost of machining. Green machined parts can then be sintered to achieve maximum density and strength.

 

What is Pre-Alloyed (PA) powder?

 

Global Titanium can make powder from wrought titanium bar, plate or sheet using the (HDH) process. The resulting powder particlesare "blocky" in shape. Since titanium wrought alloys are already fully homogenous, the resulting powder contains all the alloying elements found in the original wrought material.

 

What is Blended Elemental (BE) powder?

 

By blending titanium powder with other elemental powders such as aluminum, vanadium, niobium, chromium, tin and zirconium, Global Titanium can form commercial alloys of various ASTM grades.

 

What is Metal Injection Molding (MIM)?

 

Titanium powder can be mixed with a binder such as wax or polystyrene to form a malleable paste called “feedstock”.  The feedstock can be injected into a reusable mold to form a net shape component similar to plastic injection molding.  The binder is then removed and the resulting “green” component can be sintered to form a fully dense, titanium component that is a replica of the mold.  Global Titanium has a proprietary process for making complex, net shape titanium components by MIM. 

 

What is Meant by Prototyping?

 

Since titanium powder can be compressed into near net shape components, Global Titanium can make net shape components by machining from a rough blank.  The cycle time for this process is very short and a customer can have a finished titanium component ready for testing within a matter of days.  Production (high volume) quantities of net shape or near net shape components will follow successful testing of the initial prototype.

 

What is Meant by Machine Tolerances?

 

Close tolerance features finer than +/-0.004” (0.1mm) will often require finish machining to achieve a net shape component that meets design intent.  It’s important for Global Titanium to have a fully toleranced blue print that accurately describes the finish component prior to quotation.  Often, a dialogue with the component designer will allow feature tolerances to be relieved and eliminate machining for non-critical dimensions.

 

What is Meant by Sponge Fines?

 

Pure titanium, reduced from the ore has a “sponge like” appearance.  Many of the sponge clusters break apart forming particles that are smaller than 800um.  These particles called “sponge fines” are screened and recycled.  Sponge fines can be compacted directly into shapes with very high green strength.