At present, cost reduction is the main research direction of titanium alloy for automotive industry. In view of the characteristics of the cost distribution of titanium alloys for the automotive industry, materials research and development workers mainly from the following two aspects to achieve the purpose of cost reduction: the development of new low-cost alloy system and the use of new processing and preparation technology.
1. New low-cost titanium alloy system
The research and development of new low-cost titanium alloy systems by workers in various countries mainly focus on the following aspects: alloy design using inexpensive alloying elements and alloy design to improve processing characteristics. Representatives of Japan and the United States, China has also successfully developed two low-cost titanium alloys, namely, Ti8LC and Ti12LC. low-cost titanium alloys for automobiles in the design of the composition of the alloy, often used cheap alloying elements such as Fe, Cr, Si, Al and so on.
2. New processing and preparation technology
Titanium alloy materials in the production process processing costs account for more than 60% of the total cost, so in terms of cost reduction, how to reduce the processing cost of titanium alloy has become a key research direction. This research is mainly divided into two aspects: one is to improve the traditional casting and forging process, and the other is to use powder metallurgy near net forming technology.
In the development of new forging process, cold forging is currently one of the most promising methods of titanium alloy manufacturing automotive parts. β titanium alloy at room temperature deformation resistance is small, cutting and processing of good shape, is the material can be cold forging, at present Japan has developed three kinds of cold deformation of β titanium alloy. β titanium alloy also has some shortcomings in cold forging is prone to uneven deformation, and easy to stick in the mould, so the mass production of β titanium alloy by cold forging technology is a good idea. Therefore, the mass production of β titanium alloy parts by cold forging technology needs further exploration and development.
In reducing the processing cost of titanium alloy, powder metallurgy is a very important technology. In powder metallurgy automotive parts manufacturing, the traditional pressing-sintering method is still in a dominant position, mainly including elemental powder method (BE) and pre-alloyed powder method (PA). At present, the elemental powder method is most widely used in the field of low-cost automotive titanium alloy powder metallurgy because of its simple process and lower cost. In recent years, other powder metallurgy technologies are also emerging, including laser forming technology, metal powder injection moulding (MIM) and other technologies, which are widely used in the trial production and manufacturing of complex automotive parts, which can greatly shorten the product development and production cycle, and further reduce costs.
