BUYING TITANIUM BOLTS 1

[celemin]

Hello,

I am trying to buy Titanium bolts for space applications and l always find supplier with "delivery times" around 24 weeks which disturbes our projects.

Are there anyone that can give me some suppliers of titanium botls for space applications.

In addition, l have a doubt when using titanium bolts:

¿Should l use titanium nut or stainless steel nut?

¿Where can l find the applicable torque for the titanium bolts?

Thank you very much and best regards,

Esteban

 

[CoryPad]

If you need faster delivery, you may need to consider fastener distributors. They stock standard parts for immediate delivery. Here is a list of many aerospace fastener manufacturers and distributors:

http://www.fasteners-ez.com/fasteners/0022953_0022956_1.html

Regarding the mating fastener, it is best to use a titanium nut to avoid corrosion and thermal expansion/contraction incompatibility. You should specify a lubricant to avoid thread galling. Good luck.



Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[AeroE]

Good Luck - get your order in early, because this is the dilemma of the entire industry.

This is a fall out of "just in time" supply, which in the aerospace industry translates to "just too late".

No one uses titanium nuts in conventional airplanes, they use steel; Ph13-8Mo and A286 are the most common. Titanium nuts are extremely hard to manufacture, and they gall upon installation - try to find the friction coefficient of titanium on titanium some time, you'll be surprised.

Having said that, there could be exceptional cases where the low CTE of a titanium nut and bolt combination is deisrable, but I doubt it - the thermal growth of the bolt will far and away dominate the total deflection, and the variation in installation torque will cause preload variation greater than the nut. Redesign the joint.

I won't comment on installation torques.

 

[Nate101]

E,
If you can't find what you need from a fastener house. Try a few machine shops. If you are using pure titanium you will have problems, if you use 6-4 then use a MIL spec dry fill lube on the threads, the galling won't be an issue.

 

[Stache]

I have spoken with several manufactures and they tell me when enough orders are in they will perform a production run. Production runs are 4 to 5 times a year only in most cases.

I have found salvage yards can be a gold mine for hardware. Such places are the Dept. of Defense depot centers that cannot store parts and hardware due to cost of storage. The only problems is tracing the hardware to a know source. Sometimes we get lucky.

Denny