High Strength Alpha-Beta Worked Titanium Casting Technology

This SBIR Phase I effort proposes to exploit the tremendous benefits offered by titanium alloys and castings through the evaluation and development of a high strength, lightweight alpha-beta worked Ti casting technology. Such a casting alloy can be applied to fabricate lightweight structures for U.S. Army weapon systems in order to reduce cost and/or weight versus current alloys and/or fabrication routes. The purpose of applying a higher strength-low weight Ti alloy versus Ti-6-4 is to allow direct conversion of these forged components to Ti castings without sacrificing strength or increasing weight. The potential performance and cost benefits of such a technical development have already been confirmed for aerospace applications, but still need to be developed as a lower-cost grade and demonstrated for Army applications such as lightweight howitzers.