Comments on: Bad Titanium Parts Impact Military Aircraft Supply Chain

By: Gerrit vd Westhuizen

Gerrit vd Westhuizen — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:33:00 +0000

The cutting of so called “corners’ in the supply of forgings or forged components is a general practice amongst suppliers of general engineering steels affecting the performance of these metals. The problem is that when a requirement is originally investigated and an offer submitted for the supply of such components the grainflow of the components are seldomly detailed as a critical acceptance criteria in the quality standard. Which means that the general acceptance standards as, chemical analysis, ultrasonic standards, and other NDT tests, as well as Mechanical requirements normally form part of such an spesification, and are in some cases well within the capability of the specified material grade, although not having the grain flow charactaristics of directional forging.

By: Downstream Imports a Danger to US Steel Producers? | MetalMiner

Downstream Imports a Danger to US Steel Producers? | MetalMiner — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:01:58 +0000

[...] steel imports and exports. Now, we have had a few exceptions to that rule (everyone seems to enjoy a scandal) and we receive lots of comments when we talk about cross-border ownership of steel mills and their [...]

By: Downstream Imports a Danger to US Steel Producers?

Downstream Imports a Danger to US Steel Producers? — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:01:16 +0000

By: Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:24:35 +0000

I used to know Dan Schroeder CEO very well and was engaged to him back in the early 1990′s when he was just starting Western Titanium. Although I have not seen or spoken with him since 1999 (before I moved away from California) I can attest to the fact that based upon what I used to know about Dan – HE WOULD NEVER, EVER do what he has been accused of doing. EVER. The Dan I used to know dedicated his whole being to make Western Titanium a huge success and would never jeopardize the same. I hope and pray you are doing okay, Dan and my prayers are with you.
Lisa Hill

By: Dirk Blansden

Dirk Blansden — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:05:20 +0000

Interesting, I am aware of defective parts on the 787 Boeing builds and it is knowingly suppressing info to have it come to light. THey started out with 5553 titanium. Converted to 6al4v ti – parts when they found out there we large grain structures in the 5553. You did not even need a microscope to see the bad grain. They quickly converted to 6al4v. But did not replace all suspect parts in the planes. Also the open die process that produced the bad 5553 is producing the 6al4v material. So was it the material or the the forging process that produced the bad grain structure?? Well we will never know because boeing purposely elected not to have the material tested for fear of finding the same thing….. Have fun flying on your 787. I wont be on one.

By: Dustin Lobner

Dustin Lobner — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:42:37 +0000

I am a metallurgist working in the aerospace industry as a design support engineer…that is, I tell people what to make things out of. All I can say is, if the allegations are actually true, this is a pretty horrible thing.

To comment to the “forgings are just as strong/stronger than rolled”, that’s not always true. Forgings can be screwed up in a multitude of ways that rolling cannot. Furthermore, the form of the material affects how further heat treatment down the road affects the metal. Sure, raw forgings may be stronger, but what about after heat treatment? Heat treatment is an incredibly variable process which outputs vary based on the input. So what if it was stronger after forging versus rolled? Doesn’t mean it’s going to be stronger in the end product.

As a design engineer, I find this whole idea appauling. When I specify a material, I specify it for a whole host of properties outside of strength: yield strength, elongation, resistance to general corrosion, resistance to stress corrosion cracking, fatigue life, weldabilty, machinability, residual stress levels, etc. Unless you can show me that the forged material is better in ALL of those aspects, then the material is inferior to my needs, end of statement.

It has been said that all material passed spec testing. Again, before or after heat treat? What spec (forging or rolled)? Were mechanicals the only things tested? If so, the material didn’t meet spec (if the forging vs rolled accusation is true) because the specification SPECIFIES THE FORM (rolled, forged, extruded, etc). If they asked for rolled and got forged, regardless of mechancial properties it didn’t meet spec.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:43:50 +0000

Nancy, Thank you for your comment and the statement. And yes, we promise to talk to you before we publish anything!

By: Nancy Luque

Nancy Luque — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:38:01 +0000

We have supplied a lengthy statement for our customers which I will try to send to you. Your readers need to understand that while Western has been tried (and convicted) in the press, they pay me to handle matters in court, not the press. But no one should mistake my “rhetoric” for “spin” or as devoid of fact. Western is a distributor which NEVER bought substandard titanium let alone resold any, and there are no false documents. Our customers have our documentation of independant testing by independant labs of every piece of titanium sold. Can you please make sure that whoever writes of this next at least talks to me?