Page 68 - MY STORY

and there was no question the alloy billet was cracking

during the forging process converting it from 8-inch
diameter billet to 25- inch diameter hemispheres.

My key finding on examining their process was that 1)
they were forging at 1650 degrees F (too cold) instead of
1700-1725 degrees F and 2) they were using a gas-fired

furnace instead of an electrically heated furnace. Gas
fired furnaces were not recommended for heating
titanium because of the likelihood of hydrogen absorption

which could embrittle the alloy. Man! I really knew I
nailed that cracking problem! Home free, baby!!!

The shop dutifully switched to electrically heated
furnaces and raised the billet forging temperature to my
recommendations. To my amazement, and horror, the

cracking problem did not go away. The billets cracked no
matter my expert recommendations, and Jim was starting

to get a little belligerent, which in itself could be pretty
frightening – he was a pretty massive presence. To make
matters worse, he extracted some titanium billets from

another supplier, Harvey Aluminum Co., heated them to
the appropriate temperatures and forged them into
hemispheres without any evidence of cracking. The

Harvey titanium billets flowed like butter in the hammers.