Holy shit. I take back what I said.
Initially, to do the crazy (and probably dumb) idea of making those tripod housings out of billet 6-4 Ti, would have been about $467 / part in raw material cost. Found another place that can supply it for $182 / part. $182 for a 3" diameter x 3" long bar of certified Grade 5 Ti. That's pretty reasonable, even though 416 or 4130 would be ~$30 / part.
Handful of Ti parts on the car would pull 10 pounds out. May be worth keeping in mind.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Ti is kind of like chewing gum when used in a wear application. We sell Ti valves and it is basically required that you use a coating on the stem and seat (and a lash cap) or it will just destroy itself in no time.
I don't know how it would work with a tripod housing, but I would be disinclined to try it given the cost. Aluminum with a steel sleeve seems like a great solution, especially if CNC time is not an issue and especially if you can harden the steel after machining.
I can do the hardening for you pro-bono if you need. We've got a small furnace we rarely use. Just let me know.
The Ti would be more of... just because I *CAN*, haha. With the threads on the housing I'd have to do it out of steel anyway, unless I press in a stud.
Out of curiosity what kind of coatings are available for Ti?
We do Molybdenum, DLC, Chromium-Nitride and a lot of people use Titanium Nitride.
These all have thicknesses measured in microns and don't like point loads given the soft substrate. We also do a ceramic coating on the tip that is pretty beefy.
There is a company in Orange County called EMBEE that does every coating you've ever wanted for nearly every aerospace company out there. They're getting more into performance and race car stuff so they're worth looking into if you're wanting coating on anything.
Might wanna take a look at Chapter 9 Section H9 in the SCCA GCR. It specifically says hub parts need to be made of Al or Mg alloys. "If in doubt, don't" applies and I would certainly protest you if you showed up with Ti, LOL!
....hubs can't be steel?
Poor semantics on my part. I meant to say in addition to steel.
Post a Comment