6Al-4V Titanium forming

[gstark]

Does anyone have sources of fabricators capable of making swept tube bends in 6-4 Ti ? Bend specifics would be 3/4" to 3" OD tubing, .025" to .040" thickness. Bend radii would be from 1-D to 3-D. Bend angles from 10-90 degrees.

 

[TVP]

Tricor Industrial Inc.

http://www.tricormetals.com/

Titanium Fabrication Corporation

http://www.tifab.com/subpages/index.htm

Excelco Developments Inc.

http://www.excelco.net/

 

[JimMetalsCeramics]

I can say that the way many such tubes are bent is to fill the inside with a low melting point alloy, solidify it, bend the tube (the inner alloy provides for uniform stress) and then melt and remove the inner alloy.

 

[Bugman]

You could try contacting the Titanium Information Group. Their contact details are at

http://www.azom.com/KeyServices.asp?SupplierID=478

I imagine they would be able to put you in contact with someone helpful.

 

[gstark]

I've checked on 3 of the 4 references and each has struck out. Most forming of 6-4 ti is done at temps around 1200F so the addition of a low-temp filler material to the inner volume of a tube isn't in the cards.

This is a manufacturing problem that isn't quite as simple as it appears to be.

I've got company resources looking into the TIG reference, but so far nothing. I have heard of localized induction heating with incremental bending being used in Europe, but have no further info on this.

 

[TLA]

You may also want to talk to the folks that make the tube. VALTIMET makes continuous welded Ti tubing in those sizes, and might be able to help.

http://www.timet.com/tubeframe.html

VALTIMET
5501 Air Park Boulevard
Morristown, TN 37813
Phone: (423) 587-1888
Fax: (423) 585-4215

 

[gstark]

Our company has dealt directly with Timet (Henderson NV) on other issues and they have been of help to us.

However, I can only say there is a chasm between obtaining generalized directions on how to perform certain operations vs real world implementation in a production environment on forming and bending these materials.

For instance (from my highly impacted memory), in a 15-3-3-3 or Beta21 alloy, I believe these are supposed to be cold workable materials. Yet our experience is that this is only sort of the case, for our particular application sucessful forming was very limited.

I appreciate all the responses; however, I am looking for someone who has been successful in a production environment, not in the laboratory or on a one-off basis.