How Easy is It to Cut Titanium
How to cut titanium?
Titanium is a metal that offers endless opportunities for a variety of industries – including aerospace, chemical and medical. As a transition metal, titanium weighs 50% less than steel but provides twice as much strength.
Here at Ti-Tek, we provide a wide range of titanium rods, bars, plates, sheets and bolts, which offer a high level of durability. We are titanium suppliers who manufacture metal to suit the increasing demands of all industrial applications – could you benefit from the products that we supply?
Titanium alloys
Our alloys are great for providing strength and resistance. However, titanium in its purest form is difficult to cut.
With more and more alloying elements being added to titanium grades, the process of machining and cutting can become increasingly difficult.
There are 4 main variations of alloys:
Alpha alloys are relatively soft and can be machined at high speed. Although there are no problems machining them, they do lack strength and flexibility which makes their uses limited.
Alpha/beta alloys of titanium are ideal for jet engines. Due to the alpha/beta alloys being difficult to break, it makes machining that little bit harder.
Beta alloys are tougher than the alpha/beta alloys and contain higher percentages of vanadium, molybdenum and chromium, which complicates the process of machining.
Aluminides are also difficult to cut. They are extremely lightweight and hardwearing which allows them to be used in components for jet engines, however, they aren't the easiest materials to machine.
Titanium rods
Industries like aerospace can benefit from our extensive range of titanium – especially our high-quality titanium rods. They are used to create reliable equipment and are available to order in all grades, ranging from 1 to 12.
Whether you're looking for pure titanium or titanium alloys, Ti-Tek makes sure that you discover products that provide optimal strength. The resistance to corrosion and high temperatures that the titanium rod offers makes it highly dependable for other industries – not just aerospace – and we can cut it to a custom length.
How to cut titanium?
Using titanium rods as an example, the metal is not always easy to cut. With titanium being a reactive metal, its chemical properties change when it's exposed to heat – meaning that the rod needs to be cool cut.
There are many different methods for cutting titanium and these include:
- Mechanical cutting
- Band sawing
- Water jet cutting
- Plasma cutting
The above are all services that we provide at Ti-Tek to ensure that you benefit from titanium rods that are custom-made for your project.
Basic principles of cutting titanium
The process of cutting titanium requires careful planning and execution. When it comes to machining and cutting titanium – whether it be a titanium bar, rod or plate – there are several things that you need to be mindful of and Ti-Tek can provide you with guidance.
The first thing you need to do is reduce titanium to a porous form. After this, the porous form needs to be melted into an ingot. The ingot is then converted into a general mill product to produce titanium bars, bolts, plates, rods, sheets and tubes.
To cut a titanium bar, low cutting speeds minimise the build-up of heat and excessive cutting speeds can reduce tool life by as much as 80%!
Using a large flow of cutting fluid will increase the cooling effect, allowing you to cut metal more efficiently.
What are the benefits of our titanium cutting service?
There are many ways that you can benefit from our titanium cutting and machining services and here we list just some of them:
- Versatility
- Suitable for high-performance cutting requirements
- No material deformation from heat
- No changes to the structure of the metal
- No hazardous fumes
- Less need for fabrication or reworking
If you need to know more about any of the products and services that we provide at Ti-Tek, don't hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 0121 382 4121 or emailing us at info@titek.co.uk today.
Source: https://titek.co.uk/blog/how-to-cut-titanium/#:~:text=Titanium%20alloys,cutting%20can%20become%20increasingly%20difficult.
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