Why not Titanium?

Besides cost, why not make flashlights out of titanium?

I know its electrical conductivity is something like 5% of aluminium's but surewith with such a low power device as a flashlight and such a large contact area for conductivity, it would work?

Thermal also, is it really that bad that it won't work? Surely polymer flashlights are much poorer in heat conductivity also than titanium.

Anyway, up very late printing 1000 pages (literally) of color letters and had this idle musing.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

MO

Unless you want a flashlight that would last through the extinction of humankind, then you probably don't need to build one out of titanium. Heck, it's probably so strong that through time, it'll turn brittle and just break (a la the SR-71)... Of course, the ultimate flashlight to last the age of lifeform on Earth would probably be made out of Tungsten...

It would probably make better sense to make it out of copper. Copper's not too expensive (like copper pipping), and it's better at heat dissipation/absorbtion than aluminum. The only big knock on it is its weight, compared to aluminum's...

Obviously, you're not going to build a flashlight out of PURE gold (the ultimate heat dissipant) unless you're Bill Gates, and if he did, he'd be the stupidest guy to ever live...

Probably because titanium is suppose to hard to work with.

Moses---Anyway, up very late printing 1000 pages (literally) of color letters--
What are you printing with? Sounds expensive

a titanium flashlight would be very nice!

although, as i have said before, a tungston arc aaa would get lotsa $$$ from me!

titanium is indeed a very poor thermal conductor.

don (mcgizmo) will tell you that a piece of oxidized titanium will beat a piece of oxidized aluminum anyday...ask him about that, i don't realy know.

the problem with copper, is that it tarnishes (if not anodyzed) and it is not as hard as al.

titanium is quite hard to machine, and it is rather expensive.

a gold flashlight would look incredibaly sexy, but gold is a very soft metal, and would scratch up extremely easily unless anodyzed, and if anodyzed, why make it out of gold?

silver is the best conductor of heat, and it is attractive also...but again, expensive.

so again, i want a tungston or titanium arc aaa!

My ultimate flashlight would be Ti for sure! It would also be submersable to dive depths. We need to see some clever thermal strategies for this to house high powered LED's but something like the A2 could be made of Ti. I still have a sapphire lens that's waiting to be installed in a Ti light. I know of a company that presses copper tube inside of Ti tube for anodizing systems. This might be a solution for thermal and electrical considerations.

My experience with tungston has been limited to use in tig welding and I am of the impression that tungston is both heavy and very brittle?? No one has suggested beryllium (sp?) ? I have heard of a $25,000 bike frame made of this that was lighter and stronger than anyother frame? I also heard that if you grind the metal and suck in the dust, you die.

I have seen some small and ellegant stainless steel 2x123 cell incandescent prototype flashlights that would be very nice in Ti. Seems it should be digital though if you are going to all the expense.

- Don

Don,

thanks to you i got the Ti flu bug, and still patiently waiting for the Ti fliklite.

beryllium bike frame!! and it's stronger than Ti!! guess it must be a custom frame

Originally posted by ():
Don,

still patiently waiting for the Ti fliklite.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Has anyone heard from fliker lately ? I haven't seen him post for a long time now.

A Titanium ARC AAA?
OK, since we are dreaming... put some carbon fiber inlays in the barrel for looks and grip When dreaming, dream big!

BentHead,

I agree that a Ti Arc AAA is a winner! I also have the desire for carbon/ Ti. I have figured out how to make a Ti battery tube with a carbon sleeve covering most of it. I have a carbon/kevlar sock material that I can vacuum bag with epoxy on to the tube. I just haven't figured out the tail switch and bezel, let alone "guts" of the light. Someday......

I love fantasizing: A Ti Arc AAA is doable by any competant machinist. ($50 will get you a foot of 1/2" out of McMaster-Carr.) 1st bi**ch would be cutting the electronics/LED out of the front ***'y (unless you could get Mr. Gransee to sell you one.) 2nd is the threads would be a single-point job or require ordering a custom ground tap and die. Tungsten (W-carbide blanks are easier to get) is doable too. Now you are looking at some expensive EDM work- especially the threads. Of the "unobtainiums" my choice would be Beryllium or Osmium. Be is half again stiffer than steel and density is similar to Al (a loose recollection.) Osmium, on the other hand is about as heavy as it gets . Iridium would be cool too- only a little less dense than osmium, and nicer color. Then again, what about a fillement-wound, carbon fiber/epoxy case? Depending on the "layup," carbon fiber has good thermal conductivity. Back to the real world: This newbie is the very happy owner of a plain black Arc AAA which is my first EDC! Got an LE backordered over a month which I read I may get in Jan. (Think I'll put a saphire window (ordered) in it to keep the LED from getting scratched-up .)

L

Thanks for all who responded. Yup, tungsten seems like it would be awfully HEAVY.

Anyway, asked the question out of curiosity. It seems that what is stopping a titanium flashlight is really about cost. Makes sense.

McGizmo- you made a little one out of titanium right? (Arc body) Any problems with electrical conductivity? Or galling? I assume there's not much heat to dissipate with an Arc.

While we're dreaming- why not Titanium with Nitride coating? (I think I got the term correct?)

Titanium is so inert that one doesn't really need to anodize. Bare titanium will do just fine in the elements. I know as I have wedding ring out of titanium. (cheap, durable and good replacement for the gold one that I lost. Of course, now I have an ever cheaper silver one when I thought I lost THAT titanium too...

MO

But anodized Titanium can look so cool! Yep Ti would be special. I'm in. Where do I pay?

How does one tell if it's titanium or not?

Originally posted by Nerd:
How does one tell if it's titanium or not?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, I've used two tricks I figured out after working with it. If you can to a small destructive test, hit the metal somewhere with a grinder. Ti sparks are white! The color we want our lights to be.

You can also hook the metal up to 12V + and put a conductive solution (not sure of the terms here) on the metal and then "brush" the solution with the - from the battery. If the Ti is not heavily oxidized, you will oxidize it (anodize) and with 12 Volts, bright or raw Ti will go to a bronze or gold color, almost immediately! Anodizing Ti is a piece of cake. Unfortunately the anodize (just a controlled thickness layer of oxidazation) can be abbraided off rather easily since it is so thin.

24 volts will give you a nice blue color.

- Don

Hey Don, What color would you get at 220 vac

Originally posted by W4DIZ:
Hey Don, What color would you get at 220 vac

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">What color is dead? Actually, you need DC current but I've only taken it up to 100 and I don't get any color at that point, more an interesting pearlescent grey that seems to reflect varying colors. Hey............. I don't like being the straight man!

If we are going for exotic, we might want to consider one of the rare, phenomenally strong alloys of aluminum such as Al-Sc, or Scandium doped Aluminum. This alloy retains all the favorable properties or plain aluminum, excellent heat and electrical conductivity, light weight with ultra-high strength normally not associated with aluminum.

Originally posted by x-ray:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by ():
Don,

still patiently waiting for the Ti fliklite.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Has anyone heard from fliker lately ? I haven't seen him post for a long time now.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">nope... guess muss be some thermal issues concerning the luxeon in the Ti fliklites

,

I got an e-mail from flicker quite a while back telling me he'd keep me informed. Haven't heard a peep since. I was under the impression that he was going to go ahead with the 5mm LED light in Ti but who knows.

RE: The comment about $50 for a foot of bar stock from McC. is likely misleading as Ti can be purchased for considerably less than that from more direct ot specialized Ti sources.

Moses,

To answer your questions, galling wasn't a problem with the one light I made as it was still an Arc head so the threads were Al to Ti. Even with Ti to Ti, I don't think galling should be an issue, especially if some type of lube is used. It has been my experience that galling is most likely to occur if the parts are turned under load which should not be the case with a flashlight.

As far as thermal issues with the Ti, Doug S. could probably give us a good idea. My guess is that in the case of a light like the Arc AAA, unless the light was left on for long periods of time, there is likely little damage to the LED. Even in the worse case of constant on, perhaps the LED degrades at an accelerated rate that may still provide an ultimate life for the LED well beyond the expected usage cycle of the flashlight itself. IE: how many of these lights will see 5000 hours of use?

- Don