# Hopefully, this will drop the price of Titanium soon...



## Jumpmaster (Jun 8, 2006)

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/08/223234&from=rss

JM-99


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## chesterqw (Jun 9, 2006)

wee!


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## NotEnoughLight (Jun 9, 2006)

i believe it would not have that great an impact since much of the cost probably lies in the machining of the raw metal. The RAW Ti and the Exolion were such small lights that the material itself would have contributed litte with the $40 per pound price tag. With an excellent LED and driver put in, the bulk of the costs still lie in the machining. However, we all know the prices...

However, I am no machinist and no manufacturer so my words should be taken with a pinch of salt.


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## Jumpmaster (Jun 9, 2006)

It is true it is more difficult to machine Ti, but the raw material cost is the most prohibitive factor.

JM-99


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## Anglepoise (Jun 9, 2006)

I read somewhere that one of the reasons Ti was so high at present was the 
war going on between Boeing and Airbus. Both buying up Ti like crazy.


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## HarryN (Jun 9, 2006)

I did not realize that Ti refining was so difficult. If the article is correct, this is the equivalent to the revolution enabled by the Hall process for refining Al.

Nonetheless, Ti ore is found primarily in Russia and South Africa I believe, and demand in general far outstrips supply.


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## xochi (Jun 23, 2006)

NotEnoughLight said:


> i believe it would not have that great an impact since much of the cost probably lies in the machining of the raw metal. The RAW Ti and the Exolion were such small lights that the material itself would have contributed litte with the $40 per pound price tag. With an excellent LED and driver put in, the bulk of the costs still lie in the machining. However, we all know the prices...
> 
> However, I am no machinist and no manufacturer so my words should be taken with a pinch of salt.



If the cost of the material comes down the variety of applications will increase and the machining industry will become more proficient at machining it as well as have cheaper specialized tools to work with it. It isn't that its hard to machine, its that the ti machining industry isn't large enough to have learned how to do it easily.

I'm not a machinist either, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.


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## Anglepoise (Jun 23, 2006)

Yesterday I spent most of the day at a machining convention and had a chance to talk with the Sandvik tech people. Sandvik are one of the largest manufacturers of the little cutters that actually machine the metal.

He says that one of the main reasons the 'shops' do not like working with Ti
is because everything has to be done in slow motion due to the fact that the Titanium chips can burn with an intensity that can bore a hole through the 'chip tray' on the lathe in a matter of seconds. Because TI has such bad heat transfer all this heat stays in the chip at the cutter. So everything has to be machined slowly and as we all know time in money.

On returning home, I chucked up a bar of Ti and took a 0.002 thou cut.
The fine chips coiled around the tool and after 30 seconds, I was able to remove a fine web of cuttings between finger and thumb.
I placed it on the garage floor and hit it with the torch. 5 seconds later there was a small white hot fireball about a foot in diameter. Burnt for about 3 seconds. Very very hot and hurt to look at .

Now I understand why TI machining takes so long.


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## ouchmyfinger (Jun 23, 2006)

Burning titanium is not anything you want to be breathing deeply around either. I'd wear a mask if I was working with it much.


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## KC2IXE (Jun 23, 2006)

Yeah, a LOT of folks don't realize that Ti will burn just like Magnesium - just harder to ignite. My "uncle" (actually 2nd cousin once removed) used to be a furnace foreman at one of the major Ti smelters - he said it's "real interesting" when a furnace full of Ti ignites - no way to put it out - you let it burn, and hope it does not burn all the way through the firebrick (which, if the furnace foreman did his job right, it won't)

Want NASTY stuff to machine? Try iconel - hehehehe


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## McGizmo (Jun 23, 2006)

I have had two chip pan fires with Ti. In both cases, I wasn't using coolant or a mister. I don't know what the color temp of the flame is but it is really really white!!!! You see white sparks when bead blasting or grinding Ti as well. It oxidizes *right now*!!


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