Clear coating of titanium springs
Clear coating of titanium springs
(OP)
Hi
I have a couple of titanium springs in production, made for testing on downhill mountainbikes. The springs are made of Ti-3Al8V6Cr4Mo4Zr, which has been sand blasted after production of the springs.
My question is: Which type of clear coating should be used for this type of spring? They will be mounted on mountainbikes, so they need to handle a lot of abuse - sand, water, salt, stones etc. Temperatures will be from -20 to +50 degrees Celsius.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Theis, Denmark
I have a couple of titanium springs in production, made for testing on downhill mountainbikes. The springs are made of Ti-3Al8V6Cr4Mo4Zr, which has been sand blasted after production of the springs.
My question is: Which type of clear coating should be used for this type of spring? They will be mounted on mountainbikes, so they need to handle a lot of abuse - sand, water, salt, stones etc. Temperatures will be from -20 to +50 degrees Celsius.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Theis, Denmark





RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
Don't do a "sand blast"; you need to do a controlled shot peen for service life enhancement.
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
If not then you should get them shot peened.
Any coating will only eventually fail, long before the springs do.
If you want to change the look then you might try heat tinting them. You can get some great looking surfaces.
It can even be done electrochemically to impart colors.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
The only place on the spring to really worry about is the ends where it seats. You could get some fretting there, though it is more likely that the mating part and not the Ti will suffer the worst wear and corrosion.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Clear coating of titanium springs
A bit delayed, but thank you very much for your answers.
I have just recieved the springs from the manufacturer, and they sandblasted them instead of shot peening. I guess the communication with chinese factories can be difficult sometimes...
Nevertheless, I am now trying to find out what to do with them. I have contacted a local spring factory, which do surface treatments of springs. They can do the shot peening, but they usually do this for carbon steel and stainless steel - they are not familiar with titanium.
Do any of you know if stainless steel shots/balls will work fine with the titanium springs?
The factory also asked about heat treatment of the springs after shot peening - will this be necessary? If so, what temperature will be needed?
Thanks!
Theis