We were happy to support Ohio Northern’s SAE Baja team with a donation of varying diameters of 6-4 and 662 round bar. We look forward to seeing how their team and vehicle performs in the upcoming competitions!
Performance Titanium Group,
The Ohio Northern SAE Baja Team would like to thank Performance Titanium Group for their outstanding support of our team for the 2018-19 year. PTG has allowed us to explore the advantages and challenges that are associated with advanced materials such as Titanium. This year was our team’s first experience with using Titanium for components on the car. PTG was kind enough to donate several round blanks of their Ti 6Al-6V-2Sn and 6Al-4V alloys that were used for making gears. Utilizing Titanium’s superior strength to weight ratio, we were able to reduce rotational weight and moment of inertia, while maintaining sufficient strength. These gears are 45% percent lighter than our steel set, resulting in over 4lbs of weight loss in our gears from last year to this year.
In addition to the many benefits that are associated with using Titanium over steel, some challenges were encountered along the way. The most prominent of these challenges was learning how to machine it. During our first time turning Titanium, we got the tooling and chips so hot they started to glow! Thus, we discovered Titanium’s poor heat dissipation and learned that coolant is an absolute must when machining it. However, after some research and trial and error, we figured out pretty well how to machine it by adjusting feeds/speeds/depth of cut.
In the coming weeks, the ONU Baja Team will be competing at the SAE sanctioned Baja race in Tennessee, where we are eager to see the benefit the Titanium gears will provide. Additionally, ONU will be competing in SAE races in California and New York this year.
Thank you again for supporting our team! – Polar Bear Racing
