Management Justification to Select Titanium Automotive Components

Titanium and titanium alloys offer a unique combination of physical and mechanical properties that provide engineering benefits to automotive components. Titanium's major limiting factors to large-volume acceptance have been 1) the material's high raw material cost and, 2) engineering consideration primarily on a substitution basis. Consumer and governmental pressure to improve vehicle fuel efficiency, durability, and safety, while progressively “light-weighting” compels auto industry managers to reassess the value of titanium. Many additional synergies, however, have been discovered to motivate automotive company management to cost-effectively use titanium.