German scientists "soften" titanium alloys

In order to reduce the processing costs of titanium alloys, material scientists at the University of Braunschweig in Germany made a fuss about the metal structure of the materials. They first managed to soften the titanium alloys, processed them, and then restored the characteristics of the materials.
Titanium alloy has high strength, light weight, and good heat resistance. It is suitable for ships, automobiles, and aerospace industries. It is considered as a future material. The new Boeing 777 passenger aircraft uses about 9% of titanium alloy material. However, the processing of titanium alloys is extremely difficult. For example, it takes 50 hours to process a marine turbo compressor wheel, and it takes only 5 hours to process the same part of an aluminum alloy. Brunswick scientists have used a special heat treatment method to infiltrate hydrogen atoms into the material and the hydrogen-doped titanium alloy is relatively softened. The machining of the softened titanium alloy proves that the mechanical and thermal loads on the processing equipment are significantly reduced, and the cutting force only needs to be 50% in the past, which greatly reduces the processing cost. After the processing is completed, special heat treatment steps are performed, and the characteristics of the material are returned to the original state.
Scientists said that this method is very suitable for processing large quantities of titanium alloy castings. At present, this new processing method has not yet entered practical use.