Development and application of titanium alloy materials in bicycle manufacturing

With the change in people's understanding of bicycle functions, especially the increasingly fierce international bicycle competition, bicycle manufacturers continue to seek new materials with lightweight and high strength, so titanium seamless pipe has become their target of attention.

According to the functions of each part of the bicycle, the bicycle can be divided into 13 parts, namely, the body part, the control part, the drive part, the walking part, and the transmission part. Braking part, seat part, loading part, parking part, alarm part, lighting part, accessories and connecting parts. The car body includes the frame, the front car, the front, the suspension, the valve seat and the mudguard. This part accounts for about 27% of the car's weight by its weight. The driving part includes a sprocket, a crankshaft, a pedal, a chain, a flywheel, and a chain box. This part accounts for about 22% of the car's weight. The walking part includes tires, inner Grade 3 Pure Titanium Tube, rims, spokes, and wheels, which account for about 24% of the total weight of the bicycle. It can be seen that the weight of the three parts of the body, the driving part and the walking part account for more than 70% of the total weight of the bicycle.

Therefore, the issue of titanium materialization to reduce the weight of bicycles first started here, and after more than 10 years of development and research, some of the human parts have been made of titanium material.

Surface treatment method of titanium tube

The alloying of the surface of the titanium tube can also be called a kind of coating. Compared with the oxide coating of palladium on titanium, it has the advantages of strong bonding force, wears resistance, and corrosion resistance. Compared with the titanium-palladium alloy, the surface content of palladium is high, which saves the precious metal palladium, reduces the cost, and also has excellent performance.

Aluminizing the surface of the Grade 5 Titanium Tube can reduce the hydrogen absorption tendency of titanium. Mixing 88% alumina, 4% aluminum fluoride, and 8% aluminum powder to coat the titanium workpiece is a good aluminizing condition, the temperature is 810℃. The thickness and structure of the aluminized layer depend on the holding time. Aluminizing by the permeation method, a thin coating about 2 mm thick can be obtained by diffusion in a short time, and the bonding force is good, and the mechanical properties of the substrate are not affected. The coating is mainly composed of titanium oxide phase, which forms a barrier layer that prevents hydrogen penetration very effectively.

After palladium is plated on the titanium tube, it can be heated by different methods to diffuse the palladium-plated layer to the surface area of ​​the titanium tube to form a titanium-palladium alloyed layer on the surface, thereby improving the corrosion resistance. Heating diffusion or laser surface remelting are both feasible in principle. Use a laser to irradiate the titanium surface to quickly melt and condense, which can quickly melt the pre-vacuum-deposited palladium film of 150 microns to form an effective palladium alloy.

The surface treatment of the Titanium Condenser Tubes has many advantages, which can increase the oxidation resistance of the titanium tube and enhance the brightness of the surface of the titanium tube. Different titanium tube surface treatment methods will meet the different performance requirements of titanium tube, which is an important manifestation of the production capacity of titanium tube manufacturers at this stage.

Why hardness requirements are required for titanium screws

The density of titanium alloy is generally about 4.51g/cm3, which is only 60% of steel. Some high-strength titanium alloys exceed the strength of many alloy structural sheets of steel. Therefore, the specific strength (strength/density) of titanium alloy is much greater than that of other metal structural materials.

 It can produce parts with high unit strength, good rigidity and light weight. The aircraft's engine components, skeletons, skins, fasteners and landing gear all use titanium alloys. So when we customize titanium metric screws, how do we choose the material of the screws? In fact, titanium alloys are produced to meet the different needs of the industry.

Because all the screws in the world are used in different environments, the positions used on machine parts are also different, and the hardness, flexibility, thermal conductivity, and wear resistance of the screws required by the machine are also different. Therefore, when customizing the production of screw fasteners for customers, they will always ask where the user’s screws are used and what kind of performance is required?

If hardness is required, then it is recommended to use titanium-cobalt alloy. Titanium-cobalt alloy is generally used to make cutting tools. When selecting the screw material, it must be understood that when the hardness of the screw is high, the titanium screw is easy to break.

The main application of surgical implants and medical titanium plates in orthopedic surgery

The disabled in the world are close to one-twelfth of the world’s population, according to incomplete statistics. There are 60 million physically disabled people and nearly 2 billion dental patients. At present, there are only 35 million surgical implants. The annual joint replacement volume is about 1.5 million, which is far from the actual number of replacements. Therefore, the potential market demand for biomedical materials is huge. As the first choice for Ultra-Thin Titanium Alloy Sheet the demand for medical titanium and titanium alloys will also greatly increase, so it is imperative to increase the research and development of medical titanium plates.

There is no scar on the face. Compared with traditional treatment methods such as small steel plate, steel wire internal fixation, single jaw ligation, and intermaxillary traction, the titanium plate in the treatment of maxillofacial fracture internal fixation has the advantages of simple operation, less damage, and Accurate and reliable anatomical fixation. Except for condyle and zygomatic arch fractures, extraoral incisions are required. For other mandibular fractures, intraoral incisions are often used. It can also avoid damaging the facial nerve.

The problem of intermaxillary traction during Grade 2 Pure Titanium Sheet internal fixation is that intraoperative intermaxillary traction can provide the correct reduction of the fracture end and a good bite-jaw relationship, and can also prevent drilling. Disturbance of the bite-jaw relationship is caused. Except for the cases of combined mandibular fractures, which need to be assisted for 1 week after internal fixation, traction and fixation are generally not required after other fracture fixation operations. Because of the short traction time, it is difficult for the patient to The mandibular joint function has little impact, easy to maintain oral hygiene, can eat, is conducive to nutrition and wound healing of patients, and at the same time greatly reduces the pain of patients compared with the past.

The choice of the fixed position of the titanium plate, and the choice of the appropriate placement position of the titanium splint are considered to be one of the conditions to ensure the success of the titanium plate internal fixation. All mandibular fractures other than condyle fractures were fixed according to Champi ideal line, that is, the mandibular body fracture titanium plate was fixed on the inner flat bone surface of the outer oblique line, that is, between the root of the tooth and the inferior alveolar nerve tube, midline and next to the midline The fracture needs to be fixed with 2 parallel titanium plates. The best place to place the mini-titanium plate for midface fractures should be the orbital rim, the zygomatic alveolar ridge, and the edge of the pear-shaped hole. The screws are placed on the thick bones of the vertical pillars.

Hot workability and industry application of titanium alloy

TC4 titanium alloy is also called Ti-6Al-4V, this type of alloy contains 6% Al and 4% V. TC4 is widely used in titanium alloys. Al is an element that improves the stability of the phase, and V is an element that improves the stability of the β phase. After adding aluminum to pure titanium, aluminum has sufficient solubility in a-Ti. Aluminum is widely distributed in nature, easy to prepare, and relatively cheap. Aluminum is much lighter than titanium. Adding aluminum to titanium reduces the density and increases the specific strength. More importantly, aluminum can effectively solid solutions strengthen while the alloy maintains sufficient plasticity. Aluminum can effectively strengthen the a-phase not only at room temperature but also at high temperatures, improving the thermal strength and working temperature of the titanium alloy. 6al4v titanium round bar with 6% aluminum can work for a long time at 400℃ and maintain high strength. However, only aluminum-containing titanium aluminum alloy (Ti-4Al) will become brittle after long-term heating at 550°C. Therefore, adding an appropriate amount of β-type stabilizing element X to the titanium aluminum alloy will hinder the formation of brittleness, and contains a certain amount of β phase, which improves the hot workability of the alloy and the plasticity of the alloy, and it can also be heat treated ( Such as solid-solution + aging to further improve the strength). The structure of TC4 deformed and annealed is a+β coexistence. The content of the β phase in TC4 is relatively small, accounting for about 10%. TC4 alloy has good overall mechanical properties after being air-cooled (recrystallization annealing) after being kept at 750~800℃ for 1-2h. The structure of the alloy at this time is equiaxed a+β phase.

6al4v titanium bar can usually be solid-solution + aging strengthening heat treatment, such as heating at 913~940℃ for 1h, water quenching +523~550℃ for 3~4h, after air cooling, the strength can be increased by 20%~25%, but the plasticity is slightly declined. However, the current domestic TC4 is mainly used in the annealed state, and it is rarely used in the strengthened heat treatment state. The high-temperature strength of TC4 is greatly improved due to the addition of aluminum.

TC4 titanium alloy is suitable for manufacturing various jet engine compressor blades, impellers, etc. Petroleum machinery parts, ultrasonic molds, ultrasonic welding heads, etc.

Application and status quo of lightweight automotive titanium alloy materials

Studies have shown that for every 0.1t reduction of a car, it can save up to 0.6L/100km of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11g/100km. A large number of studies have proved that lightweighting of cars is important for reducing fuel consumption of fuel vehicles and meeting energy-saving and environmental protection requirements. effect. At the same time, for new energy vehicles, lightweight vehicles can not only save energy, but also increase the vehicle's cruising range and extend battery life under the same battery capacity. It can be seen that the lightweight of electric vehicles also plays an important role in improving the performance of electric vehicles. In addition, reducing the mass of the car can also reduce the burden of the suspension system, reduce the inertia of the car, and protect the car.

The all-titanium car was first developed by the American General Company in 1956 as the "Firebird II" type car. However, due to the high price of titanium and titanium alloys, the application in the automotive field has been limited. In the 1950s, Japan began to develop titanium and titanium alloy auto parts. In the 1960s, titanium was used in racing engines. It was not until the end of the 20th century that titanium and titanium alloys were widely used with the development of luxury cars. With the emergence and development of titanium alloys, titanium alloy tube have begun to be widely used in the manufacture of ordinary automobiles.

Studies have confirmed that 20kg steel automotive power valve parts have the same effect as 0.8kg titanium alloy parts, but their quality is reduced by 96%. Using titanium alloys to make automobile engine valves can reduce weight by 30% to 40% and increase the maximum speed. For the shock absorption system, studies have shown that it is feasible in many aspects to completely replace the original steel spring with a titanium alloy spring, which can reduce the weight by 43.3%.

Titanium and titanium alloys are commonly used in exhaust systems. Using titanium mufflers to replace stainless steel mufflers can reduce weight by about 40%. Chevrolet Corvette Z06 successfully realized this replacement, ensuring that the quality of the system is unchanged. Lighter, faster and save fuel. Studies have also shown that if all the traditional parts in a 1500kg mid-size car are replaced with titanium alloy parts, the weight of the vehicle will be reduced by about 500kg, which can also greatly reduce fuel consumption.

At present, my country has the ability to produce titanium and Titanium Capillary Tube, but due to the high price of titanium alloys and sensitivity to process parameters, the application of titanium alloys in auto parts has been restricted. Titanium alloys have poor fluidity and casting defects are easy to form in castings. Therefore, the equipment and conditions required for titanium alloy casting and processing are relatively high. This is one of the important reasons why titanium alloy parts are not favored by automobile manufacturers. With the rapid improvement of my country's scientific and technological level, the research and development of titanium and titanium alloys has attracted much attention, which will inevitably make titanium alloys develop towards low cost and high quality.

Pipe cutting and groove processing of titanium pipes!

As the application fields of titanium tubes continue to expand, so does the amount used. Our titanium pipes have been applied in construction, in order to make the construction more scientific to provide users with high-performance titanium pipes.

The research on refractory materials for casting molds has always been linked to the crucible materials for smelting titanium tubes and titanium alloy tubes. Based on dynamics, the crucible material has to be in contact with the titanium liquid for a long time during smelting, and the titanium liquid is in contact with the titanium liquid for a long time. The contact time of the holding material is much shorter, so the usable crucible material can be used as the casting material of the Grade 9 Ti3Al2.5V Titanium Tube

The materials that have been studied include carbides, nitrides, borides, sulfides, oxides, rare earth oxides, fluorides, oxyfluorides, sulfur oxides, and refractory metals such as W and Mo. Only a few materials have high chemical stability to titanium liquid, including ThO2, some rare earth oxides, TaB2, Npc, some rare earth sulfides and some rare earth oxyfluorides.

Pipe cutting and bevel processing of titanium pipes; pipe cutting and bevel processing should be carried out by mechanical processing methods in a special workplace. Use clean water with non-polluting media for cooling during processing to prevent oxidation. Processing tools should be dedicated and kept clean to prevent iron pollution. The processed nozzle should ensure that the surface is smooth and free of defects such as cracks and heavy leather. The maximum inclination of the incision plane does not exceed 1% of the pipe diameter.

Surface cleaning: Use a steel wire brush made of austenitic stainless steel to remove scale, paint, dirt, dust, and debris that can react with titanium welded tube on all welding surfaces of the titanium pipe and within 100mm near the groove. Use a grinding wheel to trim the machined surface to remove flashes, burrs, convexities and other defects.

Align and clamp the titanium pipe and fittings. The axis should not be offset, the gap should be uniform, and the titanium pipe should be prevented from being damaged and contaminated during assembly. Avoid forced pairing. Tack welding adopts the same welding process as formal welding.

Titanium tube degreasing treatment: Use celluloid sponge dipped in sulfur-free ethanol or sulfur-free acetone to degrease all the welding surfaces and the vicinity of the groove within 50mm, and there should be no residue on the surface after treatment. Welding: It should be carried out under the conditions specified in the relevant standards.