Manufacturing of high added value titanium components. A South African perspective

South Africa has significant titanium reserves and is developing strategies to not only provide this raw material on global markets, but to manufacture complex titanium alloy products and participate fully in global supply chains. Pursuing more sustainable process chains, manufacturers are constantly striving to enhance the resource efficiency of their high added value processes. Titanium alloys are used comprehensively in aerospace and biomedical applications, due to its favourable strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. These properties, however, contribute to the manufacturing challenges, classifying it as a difficult-to-machine material. Various input factors affect the efficiency of a hybrid process chain. The objectives of this multidisciplinary research group were to demonstrate the reduction of material wastage by up to 50% and machining time up to 20% for selected titanium components. The results clearly demonstrate the ability to increase the technology readiness levels of the selected components and to develop competitive hybrid titanium process chains that will enable South Africa to integrate more into global manufacturing value chains.