Titanium Metals Corporation (TIMET, based in Denver, Colorado, USA) entered into an exclusive license agreement with Kobe Steel Ltd on 16 May 2002 for the manufacture and sale of Kobeâs patented ânext generationâ? Ti 9 titanium alloy (Ti, 4.5% Al, 2% Mo, 1.6%V, 0.5% Fe, 0.3% Si and 0.03% C). The agreement enables TIMET to produce Ti 9 in the USA and the UK, and market these mill products in North America and certain European countries.
Alloy Ti 9 has mechanical properties similar to other high-strength titanium flat rolled alloys. But unlike other alpha + beta sheet alloys, Ti 9 has special cold-working characteristics that permit production as a strip coil product in comparison with the typical manufacturing process of hot-rolling individual sheets or packs of a small number of sheets. It is envisioned the streamlined continuous strip production method of manufacture has the potential to provide manufacturing cost reductions as compared to more traditional titanium alloy sheet rolling methods.
Production of alloy Ti 9 will complement other titanium mill products available from TIMET for service in the aerospace, industrial, automotive and emerging markets.
