• Performance benefits of titanium in automotive applications have been
established and widely reported over many years, e.g.:
Titanium in automotive industry
• Applications to automotive industry have been limited to smaller volume
premium, sports and racing cars because of their high cost.
Exhaust systems
Valves, valve springs and retainers
Connecting rods
High strength fasteners
Suspension springs
Turbocharger compressor wheels
Titanium in automotive industry
• Demand for more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly road vehicles.
• Weight reduction contributes to the
reduction of fuel consumption.
• 1% of weight reduction means 0.7%
reduction of fuel consumption.
• Designers are constantly trying to save weight in their design, and
material choice plays a large part in the design equation.
Titanium in automotive industry
• Cost represents a particular challenge for fundamentally more expensive
materials such as titanium.
technology to manufacture low-cost titanium
alloys
low-cost manufacturing methods for final
titanium products
• Titanium industry has increasingly attempted to meet the tough
financial and life cycle targets set by the automotive industry.
• Attention was concentrated on the development of:
Titanium exhaust systems
• Exhaust systems represent an attractive entry point for titanium into
the automotive industry.
• Use of titanium for those parts is rapidly expanding because its
advantages in weight reduction, processability, freshness and trendiness.
Titanium exhaust systems
• A closer look shows that a car exhaust system is a complex system
where parts are manufactured through various processes:
Cold press
Deep drawing
Bending
Hydroforming
Laser cutting
Machining
Welding
etc.
• We are constantly looking for new technologies that help us speed up
the production process and reduce the manufacturing costs.
Titanium investment casting
Benefits of investment casting
• Production of exhaust components
which have complex design features
and cannot be mass produced using
conventional production methods. Geometrical optimization of components with respect to their functionality
Production cost reduction and conventional production capacities release
• More economical production of certain
components instead of complex
conventional production methods
(laser cutting, machining and welding)
Benefits of investment casting
• Possibility to use recycled titanium
alloys (technological scrap) coming
from other production processes.
Significant product cost reduction
Fast prototyping (wax milling, silica rubber tools, other RP techniques, etc.)
• Possibility to produce prototype
components in development phase
and thus avoiding expensive forming
tools production.
Casting process step by step
• Investment casting of
titanium typically consist of
the following steps:
• An example of step by step
production process of an
exhaust flange:
Casting process step by step
Wax components are injected on a wax injection machine.
Patterns and runner systems are manually assembled in a wax tree.
Casting process step by step
Several ceramic layers are applied in order to form a ceramic shell. When the shell is properly
dry, the wax is extracted and the ceramic is fired.
Pouring in a ceramic shell that is placed on a spinning table in the vacuum melting unit.
Casting process step by step
After the casting process is finished, the ceramic shell is knocked out and casted parts are cut
off from the runner system.
Casted parts are inspected using X-ray radioscopy and controlled by other non-destructive and
destructive methods.
• Current challenges:
Collector + exhaust valve Complete exhaust valve
Examples of casted components
CASTED VS. WELDED SOLUTION
Summary
• Several presented examples show us that titanium casting is a
convenient manufacturing process for many exhaust components.
• There are at least two major advantages over conventional methods:
• We are able to cast parts with tailored mechanical properties according
to the requirements using blends of recycled materials.
Speeding up the production process
Reducing manufacturing costs (recycling)
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