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For incorporating titanium components onto a vehicle in place of existing iron/steel components, there is a need for a methodical procedure to ensure successful and efficient integration. This involves a refinement over standard lightweight engineering procedures. In this paper, a suitable procedure is developed for replacing a structural component with titanium and the method realized. Design and manufacturing issues associated with integrating titanium are identified and addressed. The importance of justifying component replacement in terms of life-cycle costs rather than purely by the manufacturing cost alone is also emphasized.

Surface defects were demonstrated to result from high productivity machining (HPM) as well as conventional machining of a titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V, with HPM causing the larger sized defects. These defects could act as initiation sites for fatigue cracks showing that machining would affect fatigue strength and life of the part produced. A finishing pass appears to remove the defects. Better understanding is needed of the relationships between machining, surfaces, and strength.