Are those titanium rods in your pants or are you just happy to see them.

[Eagle 5]

what's the story on the carbon epoxy?

Basically thats carbon fiber, not really something meant for rods. I forget off the top of my head but I believe it did not weigh much but had to be rather large compared to the others. I'll have to look when I get home.

 

[blue1]

haha, indeed I do work at GE. Down in Advanced Combustion Engineering. So we deal with the HOTTEST stuff..literally. Though turbine blades have to deal with heat straight on.

theres also HS188, Inco xxx, Hast X, MarM (tbc coating maybe)

Another reason why titanium is hard to machine is because of its atomic structure. Steel is not normally pure iron but made up of different metal or alloys. Well because of how the carbon atoms in steel are arranged it is easy to machine steel. Sure SS is hard but you can still do it. Titaniums structure is different from steel and makes it harder to machine it. Basically steel can shear easier than titanium. I forget the exact structures of both but steel an range from a few different ones and I think titanium has one type of structure but its one of the best.

Titanium is not stronger than steel. but it has a much higher strength to weight ratio making it nice to use on some things.

oh and compressor blade tips on some engines have enormous forces put on them. insane when you look at a decent weight tip rotating at 10,000 rpms for hours on end and the blade being about 20" or so away from centerline.... nice forces going on

Hi eagle 5
Sorry about the late reply but is good to see someone with a good grasp on technology, i attended school in cincinnatti a long time ago for 6 weeks and found the place was absolutely awesome! to try and explain some of the fundamentals to people is hard. I have been building GE engines for a while now till just recently i sort of retired, i spent 6 years on the CF6-50c2 and 14 on the CFM56-3 best part about working for Qantas was all the stuff you could do on the side for your car, i bet i've had the most expensive intercooler ducting in the world with a 332AXXXX p/no !
You are very lucky living in Cincinnatti i have never met the most best looking women in the world as i have seen there!
Take care
Paul

 

[kahl23]

Groden Aluminum rods might be a good compromise...
456 grams each

Maybe if you're doing an all out racecar, but those aluminium rods tend to stretch and fatigue after even just a season of use, making them fairly impractical for most people.