Titanium does not come ready to be milled into a product. It takes four major processes to take titanium from its raw form to the final product. The basic steps that titanium undergoes are as follows: titanium is reduced into a porous form; the porous form melted into an ingot; and the ingot then converted into general mill products. When converted to general mill products, titanium ends up as billet, bars, plates, sheets, strips, or tubes. At this point, titanium is then cut and undergoes secondary fabrication.

Cutting titanium is not an easy task. Because it is a reactive metal, it changes its chemical properties when exposed to heat. Therefore, titanium is cut cold. In the video below, you can see a Cosen AH320 Horizontal Band Saw being used to cut a block of titanium. This is one of the more popular ways to cut titanium. There are other methods such as water jet cutting, another &#;cool&#; way to cut titanium, and plasma cutting. Here at Titanium Metal Supply, we use the band saw and plasma cutting method.

The blade that we use to cut our titanium blocks is a Lennox Ti-Master Band. It measures thirteen inches long and has a 2-3 tooth pattern. These blades are always carbide tipped. Ironically, carbide is made from either titanium carbide or tungsten carbide. When the blade is tipped with it, the teeth stay sharper much longer than other materials. The main body of the blade is made from steel and the teeth are tipped with the carbide. With proper maintenance, carbide tipped tools can keep a sharp edge ten to twenty times longer than steel tipped tools. The blades at Titanium Metal Supply can last anywhere from a minute to the entire work week, depending on the operator and their experience.

Some logistics about what you are seeing in the video: the speed of the blade is 156 feet per minute, the material setting knob is on 7, and the head decent rate is set at 1 (this is set slow for video purposes). With this configuration, we can cut up to 4 square inches per minute while maintaining optimum blade life. We aim to cut 4 square inches a minute on various different pieces of titanium. This block of titanium was 35 square inches and should take 9 minutes to cut; with the slower settings it took about 15 minutes. In order to cut this particular piece of titanium, we could turn the head decent rate up to 2.5-3.

When cutting a titanium block, a coolant is continuously being poured over the saw to keep the process cold. This coolant is Cut-Cool #500. This coolant is collected at the end of the cutting process, drained and then put back in the machine to run again. You may also notice the metal shavings that come off the titanium block. These shavings are collected and compiled in a Gaylord&#; a bulk sized container. Once a truck load of Gaylord containers has accumulated, they are sold back to the mills for reprocessing.

The block seen in the video is 6AL-4V Grade 5 titanium and measures approximately 5&#; by 7&#;. It is being cut for a customer that manufactures underwater robots. They use a lot of titanium as it submerges easily and is resistant to corrosion. Grade 5 is the strongest grade of titanium available. One of it&#;s many advantages is that Grade 5 titanium is heat treatable (something that commercially pure titanium is not). This grade combines the strength and corrosion resistance of pure titanium with the ability to be welded and fabricated easily.



At Titanium Metal Supply, we work 8 hours per day, Monday through Friday, cutting titanium for a variety of different fabrications. From the aerospace industry to lightweight sporting equipment, the first step is to cut the titanium to certain specifications. As you can see, it requires both experience and state of the art equipment.

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How to cut titanium?

Titanium is a metal that offers endless opportunities for a variety of industries &#; including aerospace, chemical and medical. As a transition metal, titanium weighs 50% less than steel but provides twice as much strength.

Here at Ti-Tek, we provide a wide range of titanium rods, bars, plates, sheets and bolts, which offer a high level of durability. We are titanium suppliers who manufacture metal to suit the increasing demands of all industrial applications &#; could you benefit from the products that we supply?

Titanium alloys

Our alloys are great for providing strength and resistance. However, titanium in its purest form is difficult to cut.

With more and more alloying elements being added to titanium grades, the process of machining and cutting can become increasingly difficult.

There are 4 main variations of alloys:

Alpha alloys are relatively soft and can be machined at high speed. Although there are no problems machining them, they do lack strength and flexibility which makes their uses limited.

Alpha/beta alloys of titanium are ideal for jet engines. Due to the alpha/beta alloys being difficult to break, it makes machining that little bit harder.

Beta alloys are tougher than the alpha/beta alloys and contain higher percentages of vanadium, molybdenum and chromium, which complicates the process of machining.

Aluminides are also difficult to cut. They are extremely lightweight and hardwearing which allows them to be used in components for jet engines, however, they aren&#;t the easiest materials to machine.

Titanium rods

Industries like aerospace can benefit from our extensive range of titanium &#; especially our high-quality titanium rods. They are used to create reliable equipment and are available to order in all grades, ranging from 1 to 12.

Whether you&#;re looking for pure titanium or titanium alloys, Ti-Tek makes sure that you discover products that provide optimal strength. The resistance to corrosion and high temperatures that the titanium rod offers makes it highly dependable for other industries &#; not just aerospace &#; and we can cut it to a custom length.

How to cut titanium?

Using titanium rods as an example, the metal is not always easy to cut. With titanium being a reactive metal, its chemical properties change when it&#;s exposed to heat &#; meaning that the rod needs to be cool cut.

There are many different methods for cutting titanium and these include:

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• Mechanical cutting
• Band sawing
• Water jet cutting
• Plasma cutting

The above are all services that we provide at Ti-Tek to ensure that you benefit from titanium rods that are custom-made for your project.

Basic principles of cutting titanium

The process of cutting titanium requires careful planning and execution. When it comes to machining and cutting titanium &#; whether it be a titanium bar, rod or plate &#; there are several things that you need to be mindful of and Ti-Tek can provide you with guidance.

The first thing you need to do is reduce titanium to a porous form. After this, the porous form needs to be melted into an ingot. The ingot is then converted into a general mill product to produce titanium bars, bolts, plates, rods, sheets and tubes.

To cut a titanium bar, low cutting speeds minimise the build-up of heat and excessive cutting speeds can reduce tool life by as much as 80%!

Using a large flow of cutting fluid will increase the cooling effect, allowing you to cut metal more efficiently.

What are the benefits of our titanium cutting service?

There are many ways that you can benefit from our titanium cutting and machining services and here we list just some of them:

• Versatility
• Suitable for high-performance cutting requirements
• No material deformation from heat
• No changes to the structure of the metal
• No hazardous fumes
• Less need for fabrication or reworking

If you need to know more about any of the products and services that we provide at Ti-Tek, don&#;t hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 382 or emailing us at today.

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