Durability Improvement of Lightweight Track and Suspension Components for Armored Vehicles by Using Ti-6Al-4V

"The objective is to replace AAAV aluminum idler wheels with titanium to allow better wheel and spoke designs for mud-clogging prevention. Cost and weight limitations are the main constraint. The weight limitations will be met by designing the wheel usingfinite element calculations. Titanium is heavier, but since it is stronger, less is necessary, thus producing a wheel close to the current aluminum wheel's weight (perhaps lighter). The cost limitations will be met by using low- cost nanocrystallineTi-6Al-4V powders produced from a recently patented mechanochemical process. The nanocrystalline quality of the titanium powders enables an advanced metal injection molding plus super plastic forming manufacturing method. 1)Advanced mechanochemical processing insures a domestic source of low cost titanium powder. The only other low cost titanium powders come from strategically vulnerable foreign sources (China, Ukraine). Some of these low cost sources have quality risksbecause they depend on secondary processing such as hydriding-dehydriding titanium scrap. By contrast our Ti-6Al-4V powder comes from a primary process through the direct mechanochemical reduction of TiCl4 + AlCl3 + VCl3 for quality control.2) The idler wheel microstructure is nanocrystalline. This increases fatigue, strength, modulus, impact resistance, Poisson's ratio and lowers metal injection molding costs when compared to conventional titanium powders.3) The ma