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Can Our Dies be Titanium Instead of Stainless?

Q. We are a small plastic and paper tube manufacturer in College Park MD. We are experiencing abrasion and wear of our Heat Dies made of Stainless Steel. We want to know if Titanium or a Titanium alloy is less abrasive than the Stainless Steel and if it can withstand the 600-650 °F operating temperature.

Elton L. Williams
Stone Industrial - College Park, Maryland
2001

A. Making tooling out of titanium is likely to be very expensive. Have you tried cryogenically processing your dies to increase the abrasion resistance? Are you getting the optimum heat treat on your dies and are you getting the proper grade of SS?

F. J. Diekman
- Streamwood, Illinois
2001

Ed. note: try keying "cryogenic" into our Shop Directory.

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This is a metal finishing site, and "to a carpenter with a hammer, every problem is a nail". So my question would be, why would you want to make the whole bulk of the die of a different material, rather than coating it? Hard chrome plating (or an abrasion resistant ceramic coating) would seem to be in order.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2001

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I am totally in agreement with Ted Mooney. In addition to chrome or ceramic, there are other processes available. If the abrasion is really high you might want the ultimate and for that you should contact Surface Technology, Inc. in Trenton , NJ. They have the nickel with diamond patent. Also, Titanium nitride which is golden color and applied at moderate temperature might be a good approach.

Good luck.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico
2001

I was reading about the wear problem you have on your heat die - suggest that you try coatings of ceramic by plasma spraying that might solve your problem.

Srinivas. K
- Bangalore, India
2001