Tempering titanium

ussak · Aug 21, 2017

I bought Grade 5 6AL4V heat treated titanium billet produced by Timet. I tried cutting it with horizontal band saw but it's too hard for that. Is there any way to make it softer for easier machining?

Alberic · Aug 21, 2017

Greetings,

New blade. Ti64 is hard, but it isn't *that* hard.
Heat treating (even annealing) Ti isn't for the faint of heart, or for those who're winging it. Yeah, you can torch anneal it, but it's easy to embrittle it too. It sucks up O2 and N2 and forms all sorts of fancy compounds that can screw up its properties. (and make it harder in the bargain.)
The trick with Ti is heavy feed and *LOOOOOTS* of coolant. It has lousy thermal transfer properties, so it likes to hold heat at the cutting face, which will fry a blade, especially one that started out dull. Same thing with drills.
Treat it like the worst stainless you've ever seen, and you'll be half way there.

FWIW,
Brian

ussak · Aug 21, 2017

Thank you! Never worked with titanium before. Tried with new blade. Only surface seems to be hard. After cutting ~2mm deep it get's significantly easier.

Milland · Aug 21, 2017

ussak said:
Thank you! Never worked with titanium before. Tried with new blade. Only surface seems to be hard. After cutting ~2mm deep it get's significantly easier.

It may have been torch-cut, rather than waterjet or other methods. If so, the edges will have different chemistry than further in, away from the "heat affected zone" (HAZ).

If you need an easier to cut Ti, next time get a commercially pure (grade 2) Ti, softer, weaker,but easier to machine with proper tooling and lubrication.

tdmidget · Aug 21, 2017

Ti work hardens worse than stainless. Your "billet" was probably cold worked. High speed steel , very sharp, is the ticket for ti. Low speed, constant feed, never let it rub.

dian · Aug 22, 2017

how hard does titanium get?

MattiJ · Aug 22, 2017

dian said:
how hard does titanium get?

AFAIK 6AL4V to around 40HRC and some fancier grades like Al-6V-2Sn to ~50HRC
So its not the hardness alone that makes titanium nasty to machine. Add low modulus of elasticity(gummy) and relatively large elongation(more gummy) and you get recipe for nasty machining.

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

Tempering titanium

ussak

Plastic

Alberic

Cast Iron

ussak

Plastic

Milland

Diamond

tdmidget

Diamond

dian

Titanium

MattiJ

Titanium

Similar threads