Feasibility analysis of tank titanium alloy manufacturing

February 17, 2022

There are many reports about titanium and its application in tanks in the United States, but few reports about it in China, the former Soviet Union, and Russia. In the 1990s, titanium alloy components were used in Abrams' M1 and Bradley's M2 tanks instead of Rolled Homogeneous Armour (RHA).

In 1 battle tanks on titanium alloy to replace the steel of seven parts: rotating turret board, nuclear, biological, chemical weapons against system guard board, main sight cover, the bonnet, turret gunner pivot frame, command hatch, conductor thermal imaging viewer cover. The total mass of these components, made of steel, was 1591kg. After titanium alloy was changed, the total mass dropped to 1116kg, a reduction of nearly 30%.

The M2 vehicle's command hatch cover and top attack armor were originally forged from aluminum alloy, then changed to 100mm-127mm Ti-6Al-4V alloy plate, while the attack armor was made from 80mm Titanium Alloy Plate, which is 35% lighter than steel. Ti-6al-4v alloy is melted in a low cost electron beam cold bed furnace, and a low cost Ti-6A-1.7Fe-0.1Si Timetal 62S alloy is developed by Timetal.

In the 1950s, the United States made greater efforts to apply titanium alloy in the ordnance industry and achieved fruitful results. In order to reduce the quality of armored vehicles and improve their mobility and bullet-resistant ability, Watertown Ordnance Factory conducted a lot of tests on the ability of titanium alloy to resist bullets and armour-piercing bullets as well as its welding performance. Titanium alloy was considered a strong armor material. Titanium armor should be 25 percent thicker than steel for the same bulletproof performance, but titanium armor is 25 percent lighter than steel.

In watertown Arsenal, ti-6Al-4V alloy and Ti-6Al-4Mn alloy are used instead of steel for parts such as drive shaft, suspension arm, tow bar, torsion shaft, front wheel shaft, etc. The tank with drive shaft made of Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been tested in the field for 9654km and is in good condition.

The track system of T109 tank forged with Ti-6Al-4V alloy in this factory includes: track plate, fastening screw, center guide block, edge of guide block, chain, etc. Titanium alloy track plate and rubber adhesion is better than steel and the quality of steel is about 40% lighter. After surface treatment, the titanium alloy track plate has been tested in the field for 1352km on the medium tank, and achieved the expected results completely.

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