From kls Wed Jan 13 02:13:37 1999 Path: bounce-back Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Date: 13 Jan 99 02:13:37 From: "S.L." Subject: Re: the use of titanium in commercial planes References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: Applied Research Laboratories - The University of Texas at Austin James Matthew Weber wrote: > Titanium is a very difficult metal to machine, hence it tends to be > utilized in places where extreme performance is required, and justifies > the very high fabrication costs. That is actually a sort of "urban legend" left over from the 60s. Titanium requires *different* procedures to machine and particularly to weld, however it is not significantly more expensive to work with given a machine shop that has experience with both steel and titanium. In fact, titanium can be significantly cheaper than steel in some applications and when you factor in all the costs associated with making and using the part. -- Stephen Lacker Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin slacker@arlut.utexxas.edu (Remove the extra 'x' to mail me)