Seamless Grade 9 and Grade 5 titanium tubing produced by manufacturer Fine Tubes are being used for high-pressure hydraulic systems required for the Airbus A380 and for the high-lift transmission systems designed and produced by Liebherr for the A350 XWB, due to go into service in 2014.
Recent projects for which Fines Tubes has supplied specialist tubing also include the Sukhoi Superjet 100, the Skylon reusable space plane project, the Gemasolar power station, and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
Since the density of titanium is about 60% of that of steel- or nickel-based alloys, significant weight savings are possible, plus its tensile strength is greater than that of austenitic or ferritic stainless steels. Highly corrosion resistant, titanium also exceeds the resistance of stainless steels in most environments, is non-magnetic, and has good heat transfer properties with a melting point higher than steel alloys.
Seamless tubes are typically superior to welded products in terms of resistance to high pressures and fatigue and Fine Tubes uses multiple combinations of different processes, including cold reductions and heat treatments, to manufacture to exact customer specifications.
Fine Tubes is one of the few suppliers with the capability to produce precision tubes for critical applications.
Paul Mallett, Fine Tubes’ business development manager aerospace, says “We are seeing a definite increase in [titanium’s] specification by a range of end users – from the aerospace to the offshore to the medical equipment industries.”