News

How did you get the titanium in your hand (5)? Forging and Rolling of Titanium Materials

Now we have finally obtained the titanium alloy ingot, but it is still far from the finished titanium alloy product in our hands.
The reason is that at this time, the distribution of metal crystals in the titanium ingot is not uniform, essentially a product that rapidly produces a large number of crystals, and the microstructure formed under different conditions is different. Titanium ingot is a typical solidified structure of liquid metal. Imagine it as a just formed dough, which is not yet uniform and dense inside, and its mechanical properties are also very unreliable.
At this time, in order to eliminate defects such as casting porosity that occur during the smelting process of metals and optimize the microstructure, forging technology has to be adopted. Simply put, it means refining the grain size of titanium ingots and breaking down coarse grains. Not only can titanium ingots obtain the required shape for mechanical parts, but they can also improve the internal structure of the material and enhance the mechanical properties of mechanical parts. That is to say, the process of repeatedly kneading dough. However, the titanium alloy ingot is too large and hard to be kneaded with a fist, and it cannot be rolled into thin skin with a rolling pin. But it's okay, at this point, our heavy equipment can be deployed! Large electric furnaces, large forging machines, and supporting equipment.
The forging technology of titanium ingots mainly includes four processes: furnace loading, heating, forging, and cooling. The factory generally requires 5 sets of electric furnaces, 2 sets of high-temperature furnaces, 2 sets of low-temperature furnaces, and 1 set of annealing furnaces. Choose different furnaces according to different materials. For example, the initial forging temperature of TC4 φ 560mm titanium ingot is 1150 ℃, the final forging temperature is 800 ℃, and the holding time is 5.5 hours. When forging, the following aspects need to be considered: Referring to the 8000T forging machine, the total length * total width * total height=3150mm * 8400mm * 8000mm, the power requirement is 3300kw. The forging hammer repeatedly "kneads" the titanium ingot and after cooling (there are various complex processes in between, such as tempering and annealing), the crystal structure of the metal is determined, and the metal properties are relatively reliable.
After forging, we obtained a titanium alloy slab. At this point, there is a thick layer of oxide skin * (left after heat treatment) on the slab, which needs to be removed by machining. Rolling is the process of repeatedly bending and stretching a titanium alloy ingot with a certain width of rolling mill, causing it to deform and obtain the desired shape. This method is highly efficient and can accurately control the shape and size of titanium alloy products. This step is somewhat similar to "rolling dough" by rolling titanium alloy into titanium alloy plates of a specific thickness through the rollers of a rolling mill production line. The reason why titanium alloys have low yield and high cost is largely due to the fact that titanium alloy sheets are prone to cracking during forging and rolling processes, requiring the use of complex and strict processing procedures, which invisibly increases a lot of costs.
After professional forging and rolling, we finally obtained a sheet of paper titanium alloy plate. In the next chapter, we will talk about the machining and surface treatment processes that ultimately form sheets of titanium alloy plate that can be precision machined! The titanium products in everyone's hands here have taken another big step closer!

[ 上一页 ] How did you get th...[ 下一页 ] How did you get th...