True danger of Titanium lights?

I've done some searching abouy this subject, but it seems unclear to me still.
If, say, I had a high output light (prehaps Quark 2x123 turbo) would I truly need to worry about it. Would it be more of an issue only after klong run time (I assume), and in that case, what is considered "long"?
I am looking at this as a trade, so Ti is my only option at this point.
Sorry if this has been beaten to death on CPF, but any advice would help me.
Thanks, Joe

To what sort of danger are you referring? Ingestion?

Swallowing a Quark 2x 123 poses a significant danger. If you do so, seek medical attention immediately.

Well, titanium doesnt provide as good a heatsink as other metals, but on most lights this should be fine. It's only when you are running a production light over spec, or a very small light with a high power drop-in or at a voltage it isnt recommended that you have to worry about limiting your continuous use really.

Well, it seemed to me that there is some sort of negitive issue using Ti for your lights. Perhaps a heat issue.
Surely you know of such talk, and it seems further to me that you'd rather insult me and/or my intelegence instead of refering to the issue I inquired on.

I'm sorry I'm not an LED/flashlight master as some of you are here. I just asked a simple question; and unfortunately a smart-*** answered me.

I thought, and was hoping this was a forum that could advise me.
Hopefully, that's still the case. -Joe

Thank you.

Siggyhk said:

Well, it seemed to me that there is some sort of negitive issue using Ti for your lights.

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There are benefits and detriments to any material used for flashlight bodies. Your post didn't specify any particular danger, nor did it ask for different drawbacks of titanium over aluminum or other materials.

Surely you know of such talk, and it seems further to me that you'd rather insult me and/or my intelegence instead of refering to the issue I inquired on.

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That was my point. I had no idea about what issue you were trying to inquire. That's why I asked for clarification. My apologies for not being able to read your mind.

No hard feelings.
But you should really start learning to read minds.

Siggyhk said:

But you should really start learning to read minds.

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That's what my ex-girlfriend thinks.

If you think long run times are a danger with a titanium light we just completed a test and ran a ti light 80 hours straight and no effects and others have tested there ti lights the same way. As long as you follow the manufactures instructions and don't modify your light you should be fine. I think want you might be refereeing to is heat from running the light on high to long. whether is aluminum or titanium you should not run a high power light to long on high it will build up heat and could burn you but my titanium light has been tested on high till the batteries went dead and it was not hot enough to burn you, so it makes a difference who made the light and how it was made there is no one answer because every light is different. A danger with any multi cell light is miss matched batteries so make sure you read the battery section here and see the precautions if you use a light that holds more than one battery that would be the only danger and that would not matter if its a aluminum or a titanium light.

Heat is a danger with all high power LED lights, many lights requires some cooling when run at full power, this cooling can be either a hand around the light or some airflow over the light (Testers doing runtime measurements usual uses a fan to cool the lights, they do not with to hold it in a hand for hours).

Titanium and stainless steel is worse at transmitting heat than aluminium, to keep the light cool they has higher demands for cooling.
If the led gets to hot the lifetime will be reduced, this might not be a problem because the initial lifetime is very long (typical 50000 hours), only if it gets very hot will it be damaged immediately.

This thread is funny :laughing: !!


On topic though, I can't bring myself to purchase a Ti light. I know I'll go broke if I start down that road.

Perhaps the title should be changed to "The PROs and CONs of Titanium Lights"

Then you might be able to get the short list of the benefits and detriments.

I personally think most people buy titanium simply because it's called "titanium".

Noctis said:

I personally think most people buy titanium simply because it's called "titanium".

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perhaps a little of that and a little of its beautiful.

It's a bit , but here ya go

Here

Here

& Here.

The "true" danger of Ti lights is there expense!

Oops - glock18 beat me to the punch...

BTW - welcome to CPF you funny guy

As has been stated in so many words, heat is the enemy, as far as led's go.

I have a variety of lights with aluminum, titanium and stainless bodies. I use the same rule of thumb with all of them. If the head starts to get hot enough it's causing me concern or discomfort I shut it down and use another light until said light has cooled. In the unlikely event I didn't have another light available I would simply use the next lower mode to allow the heatsink/led to cool. In my little world it isn't very often I need to run a light on high long enough for it to start getting uncomfortable to the feel. If you can stay cognisant of the heat issue and mode vs. run time you should be fine with titanium IMHO.

Mac has made some EDC-sized lights in Titanium running an SST-50 on a high of 2.8A. (using an IMR cell)

By conventional wisdom, I would have thought it madness to run it on this high-level for more than a few seconds, however Mac stated that it could be run at this level for 10 minutes before throttling down.

I find this amazing but Mac is one of the most respected and gifted builders on CPF.

I think he has made quite a beefy Aluminium heatsink which is no doubt very closely in contact with the Titanium walls of the light.

This goes to show that the design of a good heat path is equally important to the choice of material and that the conception that Titanium is a poor choice of material is over-stated.

easilyled said:

Mac has made some EDC-sized lights in Titanium running an SST-50 on a high of 2.8A. (using an IMR cell)

By conventional wisdom, I would have thought it madness to run it on this high-level for more than a few seconds, however Mac stated that it could be run at this level for 10 minutes before throttling down.

I find this amazing but Mac is one of the most respected and gifted builders on CPF.

I think he has made quite a beefy Aluminium heatsink which is no doubt very closely in contact with the Titanium walls of the light.

This goes to show that the design of a good heat path is equally important to the choice of material and that the conception that Titanium is a poor choice of material is over-stated.

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I believe the heatsink part is the reason why it can be done.

I'm thinking a nice copper sink would let you run the 50 even longer.

Still, I'm not sure why people would pick titanium aside from appearances.

The strength is a moot point. The force required to dent the aluminum body is significant and more than what you'd come by from day to day use. If you're in a situation where your light might be damaged in that manner, it's doubtful you'd expose your significantly more expensive titanium light to that danger.

Even for appearance, I find myself more attracted to the standard chrome plating if I wanted a self queen(which I don't).

I also think that Type III anodizing on aluminum would be more scratch resistant than bare titanium.


Again, I'm really thinking titanium's best trait is that it's called "titanium". The media has done an outstanding job of making this metal into some sort of mythical substance like adamantium.

I'm half convinced that declaring that my light is made of titanium would invoke as much shock and awe as displaying a 1000+ OTF lumen beam from a 1x18650 host. Some might expect the light to survive an explosion without ever knowing how far that is from the truth.

You know what would be really worth the extra money? A solid copper light with DLC coating. You could potentially drive an SST-90 to 9A for a few minutes in a small host that fits in your pocket.

The only thing in true danger is my wallet when it comes to titanium flashlights.