maybe like 40 years ago? ive never understood where this comes from...its sort of the same argument machinists in the seventies had when automotive companies were building components with 15% nickel hardening out of dedicated normalizing and heat treat furnaces. tool steel life died a bit, but it wasnt the end of the world.
not anymore really. Kennametal and Sandvik all make insert tooling that will easily cut through Ti. Your multi-axis mills and CNC's will even track the tool wear for you and report when to replace. Titanium is no worse or better in your Haas than any other material in 2025.
and if youre still having problems, EDM will absolutely slice through it like butter.
nobody is working endmills or lathes with dry Ti and toolsteel in 2025. robots drown the piece in coolant and pick the right tools.
How to machine titanium is well known now, but it requires more time and more energy than machining the same object from any other cheap metal.
This is caused by fundamental properties of the metal, so it will not change in the future. Therefore machining titanium will always be more expensive than for steel or aluminum alloys or copper alloys.
Making titanium objects by casting is seldom a possible choice, because that is also much more expensive than for any other cheap metal, due to high melting temperature and the requirement to use an inert atmosphere.
Making titanium objects by plastic deformation is also expensive, because none of the titanium alloys has good ductility. The metals that are cheap to process by plastic deformation are those with a fcc crystal structure, like aluminum, copper and austenitic steel at room temperature, or like most steels at high temperature. The titanium alloys do not have such a crystal structure, so they cannot be deformed a lot without breaking.
One of the few processing methods where the titanium alloys do not have properties that increase the processing cost in comparison with other metals in 3D printing. However 3D printing is a relatively expensive processing method for any metal.
not anymore really. Kennametal and Sandvik all make insert tooling that will easily cut through Ti. Your multi-axis mills and CNC's will even track the tool wear for you and report when to replace. Titanium is no worse or better in your Haas than any other material in 2025.
and if youre still having problems, EDM will absolutely slice through it like butter.
nobody is working endmills or lathes with dry Ti and toolsteel in 2025. robots drown the piece in coolant and pick the right tools.