Abstract
Titanium has an excellent combination of properties that make it an attractive material for use in aerospace applications. The one area in which titanium is not aligned with customer needs is affordability. Components made from titanium are many times more expensive than those manufactured from other alloys. The supply chain of an extruded product is no exception. A breakthrough in extrusion cost reduction would enable wider adoption of titanium in many structural member applications. In an effort to accomplish any breakthrough in titanium component costs, the entire supply chain for manufacturing should be evaluated simultaneously. Due to the complex interaction of the many facets of the systems in a manufacturing supply chain, it is inferred that the supply chain in its entirety must be the focus of the design activity in order to be successful. Design improvements on a single facet of manufacture may have little to no effect on the manufacture of the component. If the improvement has a detrimental impact on another system in the supply chain, overall performance may be lowered. The use of a system of systems’ (SoS) design approach was used due to its capability to address complex multi-system integration problems associated with titanium metalworking and manufacture.
Highlights
Titanium is a modern metal, commercially available only since the 1950s, it was first discovered in 1791 and is the ninth-most rich element in the Earth and the seventh-most abundant metal
In an effort to accomplish any breakthrough in titanium component costs, the entire supply chain for manufacturing should be evaluated simultaneously
The use of a system of systems’ (SoS) design approach was used due to its capability to address complex multi-system integration problems associated with titanium metalworking and manufacture
Summary
Titanium is a modern metal, commercially available only since the 1950s, it was first discovered in 1791 and is the ninth-most rich element in the Earth and the seventh-most abundant metal. South Africa is currently the second largest producer of titanium minerals in the world, contributing 22 percent of the global output. Australia and South Africa together account for just over 50 percent of the total supply of titanium mineral concentrates [1]. Titanium has distinct physical and chemical properties—it is elastic and tough, has a high strength to weight ratio, hardly expands with increasing temperatures, and can withstand cold without becoming brittle. Gamma titanium aluminide intermetallics show an excellent strength–weight ratio, and corrosion resistance at high temperature [2]. In spite of the abundance and advantages of titanium metal, the difficulty in extracting titanium from ores, its high reactivity in the molten state, its forging complexity, its machining difficulty, and its sensitivity to segregation and inclusions required the development of special new design processing methods [4]
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