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Old 07-06-12 | 03:18 PM
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Falanx
THE Materials Oracle
 
Joined: Feb 2006
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Bikes: Univega Alpina 5.1 that became a 5.9, that became a road bike... DMR TrailStar custom build

Other than a tube of given OD and doubled wall thickness actually weighing 30% more than a steel one in most titanium alloys, and the UTS of titanium alloys an even just plain 4130 being widely varied dependant on previous cold work and heat treatment, you're right ;-)

Steels are essentially all cubic metals, which provide a healthy number of fully active slip systems at room temperature and a well-behaved texture when rolled. Alpha titanium alloys are hexagonal. Almost all you'll come across in tube form are either near alpha, alpha-beta or completely alpha and as a result are less well behaved under rolling loads. It's not impossible to roll out defects in titanium, but you must understand that the tube started life with a preferential grain and crystal alignment, which that big, fat dent just ruined, and now you're trying to return it to previous form in a disobedient metal. Without care and experience in deforming titanium sheets and tubes, it's far easier to make the problem worse in Ti than steels. Just my two penn'orth.
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