Guides / Sourcing

Why Titanium Lead Time Is Usually About the Bar, Not the Machine

Buyers expect the machine to set the lead time. On titanium parts it frequently does not. The bar does.

A shop can have capacity free tomorrow and still quote six weeks, because the size you need is not on any shelf within reach. Understanding that changes how you write an RFQ.

The four stock forms

Form	Typical standard	Usually available	Good for
Round bar	ASTM B348, AMS 4928	Common diameters in Grade 2 and Grade 5	Turned parts, blocks, most machined components
Plate and sheet	ASTM B265	Common thicknesses in Grade 2, fewer in Grade 5	Flat parts, brackets, covers
Tube and pipe	ASTM B338, B861	Grade 2 widely, Grade 9 for frames	Fittings, thin walled cylindrical parts
Forging or near net	Customer drawing	Made to order	High volume parts with poor buy to fly

The form you start from decides two numbers: how much material you pay for and how much of it becomes chips.

Buy to fly, briefly

Buy to fly is the ratio between the weight of stock bought and the weight of the finished part. In aluminium a poor ratio is wasteful. In titanium it is expensive, because the bar costs several times more per kilo.

A bracket machined from a solid block can easily leave most of the bar on the floor. The same bracket from plate, or from a near net forging, can cut the material line substantially. On a first article the forging tooling will not pay for itself. On an annual quantity of a few hundred it often will.

Ask the shop to tell you the stock size it priced. That single number tells you whether there is money on the table.

What is actually on the shelf

This varies by region and by distributor, but the pattern is consistent.

Usually available, days not weeks

• Grade 2 round bar in common diameters
• Grade 5 round bar in common diameters
• Grade 2 plate in common thicknesses
• Grade 2 tube in standard sizes

Sometimes available, ask early

• Grade 5 plate, especially thicker sections
• Grade 9 tube
• Larger diameter Grade 5 bar
• Grade 23 ELI bar in common sizes

Usually a mill order, weeks

• Grade 7, Grade 11 and Grade 12 in most sizes
• Grade 23 in an unusual size
• Thick Grade 5 plate
• Anything to AMS 4928 where the distributor stocks only B348
• Anything with a 3.2 certificate requirement

That last row catches people. The grade and the size may both be in stock, but if the heat on the shelf does not carry the certificate your drawing demands, it is not your material.

Lead time, honestly broken down

For a typical Grade 5 machined part in a modest quantity:

Stage	Typical
Quote	Within 24 business hours from a shop that runs titanium
Material, common size in stock	1 to 5 days
Material, mill order	4 to 12 weeks
Programming and fixturing	2 to 10 days depending on complexity
Machining	Depends on quantity and cycle
Outside finishing	3 to 7 days plus transport each way
Inspection and first article report	1 to 5 days

Two of those rows dominate, and neither is machining. Material availability and outside finishing decide most titanium delivery dates.

How to write an RFQ that gets a real date

State your deadline. A shop that knows the date can check stock before it quotes, instead of quoting a standard lead time and discovering the problem later.

Say whether the stock form is negotiable. If you drew it from bar but plate would do, say so. The shop may have plate.

Say whether the size is negotiable. If a 60 mm bar is not available but 63.5 mm is, and the part fits inside either, the difference can be weeks.

Name the standard and the certificate. AMS 4928 versus ASTM B348 is a stock question, not just a paperwork question.

Say whether this repeats. A shop that knows an annual quantity is coming may buy a full bar instead of a cut length, or propose a forging.

When speed matters more than price

If the date is the constraint, say so explicitly and ask the shop to quote against what it can get quickly. Options that often exist:

• A different bar diameter that is in stock, with slightly more machining.
• Plate instead of bar, or bar instead of plate.
• Grade 2 instead of Grade 5, where the load case allows it.
• Splitting the order: a few pieces from stock now, the balance from a mill order.
• Dropping a certificate requirement that is not actually needed, which can unlock material already on the shelf.

None of those are available to a shop that was not told the date mattered. Put it on the RFQ.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Mill Certificates, Heat Numbers and Traceability on Titanium Parts
• Drilling Titanium: Speeds, Heat and Why Holes Fail First