Why Is Titanium not used in Paintball

[Puddleglum]

Being an avid mountain-biker, I see a lot of titanium frames and components in that field. It seems to be extremely strong, lighweight, and pretty easy to work with.

But it is not used at all in Paintball(at least to my knowledge) And I would like to know why. I would think that a Titanium SFL E-mag would be well........really light.
Or, a titanium bolt.

Especialy AGD, has this material been tried, and why is it not used. I'm sure I am not the first person who has asked this question.

[Cliffio]

they make ti hammers, ball detents, triggers, breech knobs all for the angel

they are REALLY hard to find but they are out there

i remember something about this, actually it was abou a bolt but i dont reemmber why they said it wasnt used

anyways

i dunno, would answer your question

Cliff

[thecavemankevin]

actually a company used to make titanium bolts for the mag....not exactly sure why its no longer in production. My guess is though it wasn't a very popular item due to its expensive nature...???

Furthermore, i don't believe it is used much do to the expensive nature in machining it. As we all know titanium is strong, very stong! In fact so strong it takes very expensive machine bits (tipically diamond tip) to machine titanium.

So that might be why you don't see it more often, and don't expect a titanium SFL either (to darned expensive=not enough demand).

[FeelTheRT]

don't forget titanium pump arms for Cockers, and titanium Boomsticks!

[SGTKennedy]

i think it is hard to machine. and wouldnt last as long as SS.

and wouldnt save enough weight compared to aluminum to justify cost.

[Krazy Ivan]

It isn't THAT much weight taken off, and also it doesn't wear as good as stainless steel.

[Butterfingers]

Cause...

As part of our e-magnum project we looked into making titanium mainbodies...

If you want to pay $400 for a titanium mainbody please let me know.

Titanium does not have enough shear resistance as hardened stainless thus cannot be used as an automag bolt.

Titanium is MUCH more expensive than aluminum.

Titanium IS heavier than aluminum per given volume. Aluminum is approx 2 times lighter than titanium... The weight savings you see in titanium is because they use such thin sections of it to make frames. If you make a frame the same dimensions and tube thickness as aluminum it would weigh 2 times more.

[hitech]

AGD made some valves out of Titamium. There was so little difference some were accidentally sold.

[Jonno06]

yea,i was just talking to my stepbrother about Titanium Boomsticks...they cost about 200$....for what???i want my paint to shoot straight,and hit what im aiming at,i could care less about weight....

[BlackVCG]

[Rant] Titanium does not belong in paintball at all. It is a good engineering material, has many benefits and is now manufactured enough that just about anyone can get access to it. However, it doesn't have the mechanical properties needed for anything in paintball. Titanium would not work as a bolt because it galls. In other words it has poor "rubbing" characteristics. Titanium belongs in the Aerospace and Automotive Industries to name a few. Paintball is not one of them. [/Rant]

[ProjectMag]

Titanium belongs in golf, too!

[zads27]

Originally posted by BlackVCG
[Rant] Titanium belongs in the Aerospace and Automotive Industries to name a few. [/Rant]

Indeed.. Speaking on behalf of the automotive racing people, even we don't use titanium all that often.
Most of our car parts that are manufatured at the shop I'm most closely associated with are aluminum, many parts on the cars we order are aluminum..

Why?
Aluminum is lighter, easier to work with, better heat dissipation (kinda.. for radiators, intercoolers, oil coolers, tranny coolers..), etc etc, and number one on the list:
100x CHEAPER. (not really 100, but when you're building a car from basically all aftermarket parts, it seems like 100)

Blah blah, basically we'd be lost without aluminum and carbon fiber.


EDIT: While on the subject, anyone have 91-96' 300zx TT Titanium valve retainers for cheap?? (one of the few ti parts I will ever put in my personal car)

[Fred]

the subject of Titanium usage in paintball comes up fairly often on the Tinker' Guild.

The metal itself is really expensive, and machining it is very hard because it burns (IIRC) if you're not careful.

the only advantage would be that you can make it a lot thinner, because it is a lot stronger than aluminum.

Manike can tell you all about it, he has spent time with the guys at McLaren who make Titanium parts for the F1...

---Fred

[Rooster]

There is also a rampant misconception that titainium is stronger than steel. While steel has varring strengths, titainium is no stronger than what we normally think of as steel. The main difference is that its about 3 times lighter.

[Cliffio]

Originally posted by bunkerhugger
Don't forget the reactiveness of Titanium with Nitrogen.

but we dont use "nitrogen" we use N2
which has totally differnt properties than stright nitrogen

ever tried to "huff" N2??
wont work, know why? n2 is a different chemical make-up and wont have the same effect

Cliff