Can you cast titanium

Finely ground titanium powder is blended with appropriate alloying powders and mixed with a thermoplastic binder at an elevated temperature. The binder adds plasticity to the mixture, allowing it to be injected into a precision machined mold. This injection process produces a high precision shape with tight tolerances and fine features. The molded part is then exposed to solvents and catalysts to remove the binding thermoplastics.

The part is then sintered to remove this empty space by heating to almost its melting point and applying pressure. The sintering process removes the pore volume, causes the part to shrink substantially, and solidifies the molded part into a solid titanium alloy with its final shape.

The MIM process offers excellent dimensional controls and very detailed features. These benefits combined with an excellent surface finish make MIM an ideal process for small net-shape castings where precision and presentation are paramount. The multi-step MIM process involves high cost, however, and requires a significant initial investment in order to fabricate the injection molds.

We have identified two extremes related to the processes to produce cast titanium: rammed graphite , with relatively low cost and precision; and Metal Injection Molding with higher precision but higher costs. Many cast titanium applications, however, require a balance between these two extreme options. Investment casting — also known as the lost wax method — achieves an ideal balance between precision and cost. The investment casting process begins with the production of an exact wax model — or pattern — of the final product.

This pattern is typically produced via either injection molding or by 3D printing. The mold is placed into a furnace where the wax is melted and drained from the shell, leaving behind an empty cavity in the shape of the final casting.

The shell is then placed into a vacuum chamber, where Oxygen concentration is virtually zero. Molten titanium is then poured into the ceramic mold, which fills the shell cavity vacated. The titanium is allowed to solidify and cool, then the ceramic mold is destroyed and removed from the component casting, revealing the final cast titanium part.

While it is a less costly process relative to MIM, investment casting can produce titanium castings with reasonably tight tolerances for intricate and complex details and features.

Investment casting can also produce relatively smooth surface finish. Investment casting is a very cost-effective process to produce near-net and net shape cast titanium components. Due to its relatively high precision, it can be used to limit unnecessary machining operations and material waste.

This makes investment casting an ideal process that FS Precision has practiced and improved upon for more than 50 years! Like all pure metals, Titanium has not a melting interval but a melting point.

To go over this melting point risks to give you a brittle result, so it is not useful for this purpose. The SuperCast casting machine has been designed to read and regulate the temperature of the metal Alloy which has a melting interval, but to do this operation it requires a time of permanence of the metal in the crucible as well as a short overheating of the metal itself. All this is not recommended for pure Titanium. Use the Titanium crucible recommended in the User Manual.

Fill with a 30 g of Titanium varies for different application , and place into the coil. To have a good casting and not to break the crucible please use only pre-dosed ingots with the desired weight.

Do not put into the crucible scraps of used metal and more than one new ingot. Two ingots will create a problem, because the one which is positioned in the lower part of the crucible will be melting before then the one which is located above, when the second ingot melts the first will be already overheated and this can cause risk of cracking the crucible. In case your application requires a weight, which is not available as a single ingot, please use two ingots welding them together with Laser welding machine.

You can use zirconium paint to extend the life of the crucibles. This can help to extend the life of the crucible to cast an additional time. In this particular case, we used paint from Gesswein. Make sure that the flask is transferred quickly from the burnout oven to the casting machine, so it does not cool off until it is casted.

Close the lid of the chamber and evacuate the air by initiating the vacuum cycle, then backfill the chamber with Argon. This is called washing cycle for the purposes of our machine. They are compulsory for the Titanium casting. Minimum number suggested is 3 washing cycles, but the machine accepts up to 9. For the purpose of this casting we have used 4 cycles.

After completing the number of washing cycles, start the Melting process. Observe the melting process through the visor. When the Cast button is pressed, the arm will start to rotate and it will inject the Titanium into the flask. Figure View of crucible and flask just after ejection of the material. After the casting cycle is completed, take the flask immediately out of the machine and Drop immediately the flask into a large amount of fresh water to stop the Alpha Case production.

Once the piece is released from the investment clean by water jet, sandblasting. The below pictures show the completed results of casting Titanium with the Ultraflex SuperCast.

Flask Preparation Process:. Prepare the wax-up model. Figure 1: Wax models. Figure 1. This element is the 22 nd on the periodic table and has an atomic weight of Titanium is non-magnetic and handles heat well.

Its melting point is higher than steel at o C. This element is the ninth most abundant element on the planet, but it is found in nature only in chemical combinations — commonly oxygen and iron. During product development, we can manufacture small quantities of parts for fit and function testing, prior to production.

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