Does anyone know if the 2001 Litespeed Arenberg has butted tubing?
09-22-05, 06:47 PM
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Ti tubing is very difficult to butt using methods common to steel and aluminum tubing. Ti framemakers call a tube "butted" if there is some differential thickness over its length.
Litespeed and Serotta I think "swedge" and "coldwork" their tubes to increase/decrease the diameter which creates the differential thickness.
IF, Merlin (Extralite), and Seven machine cut the outside diameter of their tubes to thin them in the center.
The last method to thin the tubes involve a process called chemical milling. In this process the tube is dipped in acid to etch part of the tube away in places not previously coated with some sort of inert material. This process is sometimes used by custom builders, like Holland, but is not very common.
For the external machined tubes and the chemical milled tubes, material is taken away which increases the flexibility of the tube. For swedged tubes, it's harder to generalize about such matters; this process is for changing the tubes shape, not for changing thickness in most cases.
Not sure this helps but thought I'd share.
Ed
Litespeed and Serotta I think "swedge" and "coldwork" their tubes to increase/decrease the diameter which creates the differential thickness.
IF, Merlin (Extralite), and Seven machine cut the outside diameter of their tubes to thin them in the center.
The last method to thin the tubes involve a process called chemical milling. In this process the tube is dipped in acid to etch part of the tube away in places not previously coated with some sort of inert material. This process is sometimes used by custom builders, like Holland, but is not very common.
For the external machined tubes and the chemical milled tubes, material is taken away which increases the flexibility of the tube. For swedged tubes, it's harder to generalize about such matters; this process is for changing the tubes shape, not for changing thickness in most cases.
Not sure this helps but thought I'd share.
Ed
