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6Al-4V Titanium forming

6Al-4V Titanium forming

6Al-4V Titanium forming

(OP)
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.





RE: 6Al-4V Titanium forming

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.

RE: 6Al-4V Titanium forming

(OP)
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.

RE: 6Al-4V Titanium forming

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

RE: 6Al-4V Titanium forming

(OP)
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.

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