Grade 2 Titanium

With moderate strength and excellent corrosion resistance and formability, Grade 2 titanium represents the most widely used form of titanium. Compared to the other grades of commercially pure titanium, Grade 2 titanium is slightly weaker than Grade 3, but stronger than Grade 1 and equally resistant to corrosion. These properties account for Grade 2 titanium’s versatility in regard to its applications.

Applications

Chemical Processes: Grade 2 titanium proves useful in chemical processes, since it is highly resistant to chemical environments including oxidizing media, alkaline media, organic acids and compounds, aqueous salt solutions and hot gases. Its corrosion resistance holds up in liquid metals, nitric acid, mildly reducing acids and wet chlorine or bromine gas. Grade 2 titanium is also used to manufacture heat exchangers and cryogenic vessels.

Marine: In seawater, Grade 2 is fully resistant to corrosion at temperatures up to 600 F, rendering it ideal for a variety of marine uses. It is suitable for condensers and evaporators, as well as the titanium tubing and tube headers in desalination plants.

Aerospace: As with other applications where corrosion resistance and formability are essential, Grade 2 titanium proves useful in the aerospace industry. In addition to titanium sheet for airframe skins, this pure grade is ideal for ductwork, brackets and galley equipment.

Other Applications: Grade 2 titanium has a variety of other uses, not limited to power generation, hydrocarbon processing, CPI equipment, architecture, and automotive and medical uses. It is also used to produce baskets, jigs, cathodes and starter-sheet blanks for the electroplating industry.

Available Shapes

Grade 2 is available in a wide range of titanium bar, billet, rod, and wire sizes and is commonly used for titanium pipe, hardware and fittings. Plate, sheet, coil in thicknesses from 0.020” to 10” are available. Custom shapes and forgings can be ordered from the mills.

Characteristics and Machining

Grade 2 titanium machining possesses similar characteristics to austenitic stainless steel. Although titanium is commonly perceived as challenging to machine, Grade 2 can be machined easily by following the recommended protocol—low cutting speeds, heavy feed rates, generous amounts of cutting fluids, sharp tools and rigid setups.

Forming

Despite its moderate strength, Grade 2 titanium is still weldable, and can be hot or cold formed using standard techniques such as hydropress, power brake, stretching and drop hammer methods.

Heat treatments: The two forms of heat treatment, annealing and stress relieving, are designed to fully soften the metal, remove all the residual stresses or recover its strength after stretching. Annealing this grade is typically achieved by heating the metal to 1100-1300 F for two hours, and following it by air cooling. For stress relief, the temperature should drop to 1000-1100 F for 15-30 minutes, also followed by air cooling. Grade 2 titanium is not hardenable by heat treatment.

Hot work: Hot forming Grade 2 titanium will reduce its springback force while increasing its ductility. It can be hot formed using standard methods like hot rolling, forging, spin forming, hydroforming and hot pressing. Hot work temperatures range depending on intensity, from the most severe forming at 900-1000 F, to mild forming at approximately 400-600 F.

Cold work: Good ductility allows Grade 2 titanium to be cold formed at room temperature by standard techniques such as stretching, heading, stamping and drawing. Intermediate stress relief is recommended to prevent tearing and other damage from occurring during the cold forming. Grade 2 titanium’s low modulus also accounts for significant springback forces, and post-work annealing is often required to retain its optimal performance characteristics.

Titanium Processing

A wide range of metal processing options are available. Titanium pipe, tube and bar are cut to length via bar saw. Water jet cutting creates near net rings and flanges, while titanium plate saws cut up to 10” material. Titanium sheet and coil are sheered to length.

For more information Contact Tico via the website or call 1-800-391-5954.

Titanium Grade 2 Properties Reference