Forming titanium? now it's in the right forum

pavetim · Wed May 11, 2016 5:55 pm

I know it's not a welding question but maybe you guys will know. I am looking to do a project which would require me to bend/break .063" thick 6AL-4V titanium. Now the information I seen on line read like this. .070 and below room temperature 9T bend. .070" and above radius bend. Now what does this mean? What does bend at 9T mean? And would I have a problem bending this to 90 degree on a metal break. I know it has spring back characteristics and the two bends will be 90 degress and like 2 inches apart so if it has too much spring back I may have to heat form since I may not be able to bend past 90 to compenstate for spring back. Well anyways one question at a time, whats 9T bend?

pavetim · Wed May 11, 2016 8:02 pm

I put this in the project forum but think it would go better here. I know it's not a welding question but maybe you guys will know. I am looking to do a project which would require me to bend/break .063" thick 6AL-4V titanium. Now the information I seen on line read like this. .070 and below room temperature 9T bend. .070" and above radius bend. Now what does this mean? What does bend at 9T mean? And would I have a problem bending this to 90 degree on a metal break. I know it has spring back characteristics and the two bends will be 90 degress and like 2 inches apart so if it has too much spring back I may have to heat form since I may not be able to bend past 90 to compenstate for spring back. Well anyways one question at a time, whats 9T bend?

Wed May 11, 2016 8:52 pm

9T, as I understand it, means a cold bend can have a radius equal to 9X the thickness of the material, meaning a hypothetical piece that's 0.010 thick can be safely bent to a 0.090 radius, and no tighter.

Steve S

pavetim · Wed May 11, 2016 9:25 pm

Not saying your wrong but at that formula this would require a radius of .0567". Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that a freaking huge radius?

pavetim · Wed May 11, 2016 9:34 pm

From what I've read and your explanation it seems you are correct though. Looks like i'll be hot forming it. Tables shows if I can heat it to 1500 F I can do a 2T bend. A small MAP gas torch should be well enough to get a small titanium sheet up to that temp so I can form it.

Wed May 11, 2016 9:46 pm

Since you already have responses, I'll see if I remember how to merge the other topic to this one.

Steve S

Wed May 11, 2016 9:49 pm

Looks like I succeeded in merging the topics...

This comes up rarely, so I sometimes impress myself when it works the first go...

Steve S

CMSRacing · Mon May 30, 2016 10:56 am

How did the bending go? When you heated the Ti, did you have to worry about oxidization? I have also read about needing to heat Ti to bend it, but have never seen or done it. Is the heating similar to the heating that occurs in an exhaust in use? I have heard the coloring of Ti exhausts' is simply superficial and does not effect the materials integrity.

GreinTime · Tue May 31, 2016 2:44 pm

CMSRacing wrote:How did the bending go? When you heated the Ti, did you have to worry about oxidization? I have also read about needing to heat Ti to bend it, but have never seen or done it. Is the heating similar to the heating that occurs in an exhaust in use? I have heard the coloring of Ti exhausts' is simply superficial and does not effect the materials integrity.

You can flame "anodize" or you can use actual anode/cathode/solution anodizing to achieve color. Different levels of voltage will achieve different colors, and if you had a particular gradient in mind, you would anodized using the highest voltage first, pull the piece out, wipe it down, put it back in 1 inch we'll say, turn the voltage down, and repeat until you had colored the end of the pipe, knife blade, or whatever it is that you're welding.

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GreinTime · Tue May 31, 2016 2:45 pm

It's superficial in most cases to answer your initial question lol. I can PM you some links to coloring titanium for knife blades if you'd like.

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Wood Welder · Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:34 am

I attempted to hand forge some 7/16" round 6AL4V to make tire spoons to carry on the dirt bike. In my two-brick propane forge, it was difficult to get Ti hot enough to upset the end to make it thicker for the spoon end. Flattening the spoon was just as difficult. In the same forge, I was able to get tool steel combination wrenches hot enough to easily forge a nice wide spoon.

Even if I was able to forge the Ti, I would still need to carry axle wrenches, negating the weight savings. A Ti combination wrench would be the ideal starting point. Or welding a section of a Ti socket for a box end.

Titanium is some very tough material to forge.

This was my final solution in tool steel: