Guides / Process

What Buyers Should Know Before Requesting a Titanium Quote

Two shops can quote the same titanium part and land a long way apart. Most of the time the gap is not in their hourly rate. It is in what your RFQ did or did not tell them, and in what they each assumed when it was missing.

This is what a titanium shop reads first, in the order it reads it.

Start with the grade, or with the reason you need titanium

The grade decides the price almost as much as the geometry. Grade 2 cuts faster, wears tools less and costs less as bar. Grade 5, Ti-6Al-4V, runs at around half the surface speed and is what most structural parts need.

If the drawing already calls a grade, say so and say whether it is fixed. If it is not fixed, say that too. Plenty of parts drawn in Grade 5 out of habit would serve just as well in Grade 2, and the quote drops when the shop is allowed to say so.

If you do not know, describe the service instead:

• What it touches. Sea water, brine and bleach point at Grade 2. Hot chloride points at Grade 7 or Grade 12.
• What temperature it sees. Above roughly 150 C aluminium is out. Titanium alloys stay useful to around 400 C.
• What load it carries. Loaded brackets and fittings are Grade 5 territory.
• Whether it goes in a body. Implants mean Grade 23 ELI and the traceability that comes with it.

What a titanium shop needs from your RFQ

You send	Why the shop needs it
STEP or IGES model	Lets the shop program and estimate cycle time instead of guessing from a view
PDF drawing	Carries the tolerances, datums, finish and notes the model cannot
Grade, or service conditions	Sets cutting data, stock cost and availability
Quantity now, and whether it repeats	Decides whether fixturing is amortised over 5 parts or 500
Tightest tolerance and where it is	One tight bore is fine. Tight everywhere is a different part
Surface finish	Bead blast, tumble, polish and anodize all have their own cost and lead time
Certificates	A mill certificate or an inspection report changes handling and paperwork
When you need it	Lets the shop tell you the truth about stock instead of quoting a fantasy

A STEP file and a PDF drawing together get the most accurate quote. A PDF alone gets a cautious one.

Tolerances that are realistic in titanium

Titanium is not hard to hold tolerance on because it is hard. It is awkward because it keeps heat in the cutting zone and because it flexes away from the tool and then springs back.

Feature	Typical in Grade 2 and Grade 5	Notes
General machined features	±0.05 mm	Comfortable on almost any shop that runs titanium
Fitted diameters and bores	±0.02 mm	Fine on solid sections, harder near a thin wall
Critical single features	±0.01 mm	Needs a rigid setup, a finishing pass and inspection time
Flatness on a thin plate	Depends on the part	Residual stress in the plate can move it after machining
Wall thickness under 1 mm	Ask before you draw it	Possible, but it drives fixturing and cycle time hard

Treat these as typical rather than promised. The shop that quotes confirms what it can hold on your geometry, and it should say so in the quote.

One habit saves money on every titanium RFQ: tolerance only what has to be toleranced. A general profile tolerance on the drawing with two or three tight features called out separately is far cheaper than a tight block tolerance applied to everything.

Finish and coatings

Titanium does not rust, so a finish on a titanium part is usually about appearance, wear or cleanliness rather than protection.

• As machined is the cheapest and looks like it.
• Bead blast gives an even matte grey and hides tool marks. Common on aerospace and medical hardware.
• Tumbling deburrs small parts in a batch, which is much cheaper than hand deburring.
• Type II anodize, to AMS 2488, gives the coloured oxide you see on fasteners and EDC parts. It is decorative and mildly wear resistant.
• Type III hard anodize adds wear resistance on sliding surfaces.
• Passivation and cleaning matter for medical and vacuum parts. Say which specification you need.

Each one is an outside operation for most shops, so each one adds days, not hours.

Certificates and traceability

This is where titanium RFQs quietly get expensive, and where they quietly go wrong when nobody asks.

• A mill certificate to EN 10204 3.1 ties the material to a heat number. Most aerospace and medical work needs one.
• Heat lot traceability means the shop keeps the link from your part back to that heat. That is a process, not a piece of paper, so it costs something.
• A first article inspection report, often to AS9102, is a full dimensional report on the first part. Budget time for it.
• AS9100 or ISO 13485 are shop level certifications. Asking for one narrows the field, so ask only when your customer requires it.

Say on the RFQ exactly what you need. Asking for everything raises the price. Asking for nothing and then needing a certificate after the parts are cut usually means cutting them again.

Lead time is usually about stock

Buyers expect the machine to set the lead time. In titanium it is often the bar.

Common Grade 5 round bar in ordinary sizes is usually available. An unusual diameter, a plate thickness nobody stocks, an ELI heat with a certificate or a corrosion grade like Grade 7 can add weeks before anything is cut. Tube in Grade 9 is its own supply question.

If your deadline is real, say it on the RFQ. A shop that knows the date can check stock before it quotes, and can sometimes propose a size that is on the shelf.

Five things that make a titanium quote come back high

1. A part machined from a much larger block. Most of that bar becomes chips, and you paid for all of it.
2. Tight tolerances applied to the whole drawing instead of the two features that need them.
3. Thin walls and deep pockets that force light cuts and extra fixturing.
4. A certificate package asked for out of habit rather than requirement.
5. A quantity of one, where programming and fixturing sit on a single part.

Four of those five are decisions on the drawing or in the RFQ. That is the useful part: most of a titanium price is set before the machine is switched on.

Before you send it

Check that the RFQ carries the model, the drawing, the grade or the service conditions, the quantity, the tightest tolerance and where it is, the finish, the certificates and the date. That is a complete titanium RFQ, and it is the difference between three quotes you can compare and three quotes that are answering different questions.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Drilling Titanium: Speeds, Heat and Why Holes Fail First
• Welded Titanium Assemblies and the Alpha Case Problem