Advantages of titanium?

[Guy's Dropper]

What are the advantages of making a light out of titanium vs. aluminum? Titanium is less conductive and has worse heat-transfer. I expected one would be the titanium being lighter, as titanium has a much higher strength to weight ratio, but titanium flashlights tend to be significantly heavier than their aluminum counterparts. What gives?

 

[Marduke]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2671479

 

[Oddjob]

I think there is a bit of a bling factor when it come to titanium lights but titanium can also be reworked and polished to better than new. I can't remember the thread now but IIRC a titanium light had a run in with the road and the pictures of the light after the owner repolished it were amazing. An aluminum light will do the same job as a titanium one but it will show scratches and once the anodizing is scarred, a consumer can never make it look as good as new.

 

[Guy's Dropper]

I like the look of raw aluminum more than raw titanium, although I'm not quite sure, since I only have one tiny titanium light.

 

[jzmtl]

bling

That's about it.

 

[Sgt. LED]

A little lighter than steel?

Honestly I have no Ti. :shakehead

 

[Yucca Patrol]

The only piece of titanium I have is my wedding ring. For the most part, titanium flashlights are just plain cool.

Just like women like diamonds and gold and platinum when cheaper materials shine just as bright, some men have a thing for titanium.

 

[brucec]

For flashlights, Ti is basically just for bling. Of course Ti is more durable and corrosion resistant, but I have never heard of a robust Al flashlight wearing through. Ti is better than Al in seawater, but for the size of the typical custom Ti flashlight (1xCR123 or smaller), they would not be used for a main dive light anyway. I don't think anyone is really utilizing the inherent toughness of Ti over Al in a flashlight application. Maybe deflecting bullets?

Ti does have some considerable disadvantages when used for LED flashlights, such as much lower heat conductivity and cost. Also, Ti threads are gritty feeling and not nearly as smooth as Al or SS.

That said, my favorite lights are still Ti which goes to show that there is more to a good flashlight than just materials or pure output power.

 

[Maxwell]

My next light will be Titanium. I have been obsessed with the metal ever since a portion of my skull has been replaced with Titanium. :tinfoil:

 

[Cydonia]

The sad thing is that all the Ti lights I've seen in pictures and read about would probably be no tougher than an off the shelf Inova X5. I swear that one of these sapphire lens Ti lights would cease to function if dropped on a concrete floor a few times. Still just fragile little circuit boards and drivers inside...
A light is only as strong as its weakest link... which are circuits and batteries.
For the last few decades Hollywood movies and TV shows have hyped up Titanium to the point where the masses think it is endowed with supernatural properties :laughing:

 

[StarHalo]

The only titanium object I have thus far is my coffee cup:

When I do get a Ti light, I'll probably look into getting it TiCN coated; I dig the 9.5-Mohs-scale bling..

 

[Kestrel]

When I do get a Ti light, I'll probably look into getting it TiCN coated; I dig the 9.5-Mohs-scale bling..

Now that's a good idea, I like that. Prettier than polished Ti or TiN, IMO.

 

[brighterisbetter]

Isn't Ti also known for maintaining it's structural integrity under load? Cruzer flash drives a while back made the Titanium series where the cases themselves had migrated from either plastic or aluminum to titanium. I believe it was touted that the crush force exceeded 2000 pounds.

 

[brucec]

Isn't Ti also known for maintaining it's structural integrity under load? Cruzer flash drives a while back made the Titanium series where the cases themselves had migrated from either plastic or aluminum to titanium. I believe it was touted that the crush force exceeded 2000 pounds.

So, what kind of loads do your flashlights typically encounter? The most mine see are self-imposed from the crushing force of the McGizmo Ti clip.

 

[StarHalo]

Isn't Ti also known for maintaining it's structural integrity under load?

Thanks to creative flashaholics who helped abuse-test the Fenix T1 back when it first came out, we know that a good aluminum flashlight will withstand ~20,000 lbs. So a Ti light (grade 5) will have a crush resistance somewhere around ~100,000 lbs.

That means not only could you run over the Ti light with a semi truck, but you could remove some wheels from the semi and repeat the test, the light would be unfazed.

 

[brighterisbetter]

Thanks to creative flashaholics who helped abuse-test the Fenix T1 back when it first came out...

Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder, here's the YouTube LINK.

And for a bit further reading, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium

 

[Isak Hawk]

The sad thing is that all the Ti lights I've seen in pictures and read about would probably be no tougher than an off the shelf Inova X5. I swear that one of these sapphire lens Ti lights would cease to function if dropped on a concrete floor a few times. Still just fragile little circuit boards and drivers inside...
A light is only as strong as its weakest link... which are circuits and batteries.

I've dropped some of my titanium/sapphire McGizmo's quite a few times(hardwood floors, asphalt, stone floor tiles, etc.) No failures so far
I don't know if they're as tough as Inova's, but they're not fragile, that's for sure!

 

[MarNav1]

Bling.

 

[carrot]

Titanium is better for custom makers for a few reasons:
- people who are interested in super-premium flashlights seem to prefer Ti
- Ti does not need to be anodized or coated -- non-HA Al is softer than Ti and deforms more readily, and non-Chemkoted/similar Al has higher electrical resistance than Ti (Ti does not oxidize as readily as Al, and oxidized Al has high electrical resistance) -- while it may be far cheaper for SF to use Al and do HA in-house a custom maker does not have this option and has to ship parts out (and worry about loss)
- Ti is lighter than a lot of other metals that could be chosen for corrosion resistance and hardness, stainless for instance
- According to McGizmo it becomes more economical over Al for smaller runs, probably due to the need for a coating

 

[MKLight]

Sorry...duplicate post.