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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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The best abrasive blast media for titanium tubing
Q. What is the best abrasive blast media to use on Titanium tubing, that will produce a satin finish and the classic "titanium hue"? Is this what the term "activate Titanium" means? We are a new company that produces Titanium bike products and want to achieve a nice finish along with the classic Titanium grey hue.
Thanks
Manufacturing - Watkins, Colorado
2005
A. This doesn't answer your questions exactly; however, if you have any volume, you might want to consider a large mass finishing system. We have sold equip. and subcontracted bicycle frames for a couple of manufacturers of bicycles made out of titanium. You can achieve a more uniform surface finish and greater volume if you can afford the equip.
AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
2005
A. Dana,
The best media to produce a satin finish on Titanium is a stainless steel cut wire shot. This media won't contaminate the work with free iron and will typically last 3x as long as steel media. Most applications like golf clubs, wheels, tubing, etc. would use a small (.017" or .020") conditioned Stainless steel cut wire shot to load the blast machine. Then small additions of cut wire shot (cost savings) could be added to the work mix over time as the blast machine separator pulls out fines. You should try a small amount to see how you like the finish.
North Tonawanda, New York
2005
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