Titanium Investment Casting
Titanium Investment casting is a manufacturing technique for creating complex shapes from this valuable metal. Due to its unique properties, titanium casting presents significant challenges, but the resulting parts offer exceptional benefits for various industries.Unlike many metals, titanium reacts readily with oxygen, especially at high temperatures.
Titanium Investment Casting Capabilities
- Titanium boasts an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, making it ideal for applications demanding lightweight yet robust components.
- A wide range of titanium alloys can be used in investment casting. This allows for tailoring the material properties to the specific application's needs. For instance, some alloys prioritise strength, while others offer superior corrosion resistance.
- Complex geometries: Titanium castings can be produced in very complex shapes, with thin walls and fine details. This is due to the investment casting process, which is the most common method for casting titanium. In investment casting, a wax pattern is created of the desired part.
- Biocompatibility: Titanium is biocompatible, meaning that it is not toxic to human tissue. This makes titanium castings ideal for use in medical devices, such as implants and prosthetics.
Benefits of Titanium Casting
Despite the challenges, titanium casting offers several advantages:
- Complex Shapes: It allows for the creation of intricate parts with high precision.
- Near-Net Shapes: Investment casting minimises the need for extensive machining, reducing waste and production costs.
- Material Properties: Cast titanium parts retain the valuable properties of titanium, including high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility.
- Compared to sand casting, investment casting offers far greater precision and dimensional accuracy, crucial for intricate titanium parts.
- When contrasted with die casting, investment casting is more suitable for low-volume production runs due to lower tooling costs.
Why Choose SanPrecisionAlloy?
SanPrecision Alloys specialises in investment casting, the preferred method for intricate titanium parts.
- High Precision: The ability to produce complex shapes with tight tolerances, minimising the need for additional machining.
- Reduced Waste: Investment casting creates near-net-shape parts, reducing material waste and production costs.
- Quality Control: Established procedures for handling reactive titanium throughout the casting process can lead to consistent, high-quality parts.
Applications of Cast Titanium
Due to its unique combination of properties, cast titanium finds applications in various fields:
- Aerospace: Components for aircraft due to their lightweight and high strength.
- Medical Implants: For their biocompatibility and long-lasting performance in the human body.
- Chemical Processing: Parts that resist corrosion from harsh chemicals.
- Marine Equipment: Components that can withstand saltwater environments.
