Grade 19

Beta C is one of the few titanium alloys with a genuine industrial following outside aerospace, because its combination of high strength, deep hardenability and cold formability in the solution-treated condition suits downhole and oilfield hardware — springs, hangers and high-strength fasteners — and titanium’s immunity to chloride stress corrosion cracking is valuable in sour service. The 6% chromium also gives it rather better corrosion performance than most alloyed titanium grades.

The three ASTM strength levels are the thing to get right on an order. 19E at 793 MPa is the solution-treated condition and is the one to buy if you intend to form or machine the part yourself; 19F and 19G are aged, and their yield strengths are specified as ranges, not minimums, so material can fail inspection for being too strong as well as too weak.

Titanium alloys divide into four classes, and the class tells you more than the grade number does. Alpha and near-alpha alloys are weldable and creep resistant and run hottest, but are not heat treatable to high strength. Alpha-beta alloys — of which Ti-6Al-4V is the archetype — are heat treatable, strong and the general structural choice. Near-beta and metastable beta alloys are deeply hardenable, can be cold formed in the solution-treated condition and then aged to very high strength, which makes them the natural choice for fasteners and springs. Commercially pure and lean corrosion grades trade all strength away for corrosion performance.

Three absolute exclusions apply to every titanium grade: it must not be used in dry chlorine, with which it reacts violently; not with red fuming nitric acid; and it is rapidly attacked by hydrofluoric acid at any concentration. Fine titanium swarf and grinding dust are a fire hazard and are handled wet.

Titanium galls, and for a threaded fastener this is the dominant practical issue. A titanium thread run against another titanium thread will cold-weld and seize, often badly enough that the fastener has to be cut off. Every titanium bolted joint needs one of three mitigations: an anti-seize compound or dry-film lubricant such as molybdenum disulphide; a plated or coated thread, commonly silver or solid-film lubricant; or a nut in a dissimilar material. Specify which at order stage.

Titanium is galvanically noble. It will not corrode itself, but a titanium fastener in an aluminium, carbon steel, zinc or magnesium assembly drives accelerated corrosion of the structure around it, and a bolted joint’s small-anode, large-cathode geometry is the worst case. Insulating washers and sleeves or a barrier coating should be specified in those assemblies.