SIGMABOND
TECHNOLOGIES
The QUANTUM LEAP
TITANIUM CLADDING: A BETTER MATERIAL
STRONGER / FASTER / CHEAPER
LOWER COST
Sigmabond clad costs less to make. Since our clad material can be roll bonded, we can take advantage of the tremendous leverage that this offers. We leverage the higher cost explosive welding process with the low cost hot roll bonding process to produce a high quality, high volume, high value titanium clad material. We can push this leverage up to 200 times, the advantage increasing with thinner clads.
No other producer can make this claim.
Conventional clad is expensive.
Sigmabond clad costs less to make.
HIGHER BOND STRENGTH
The standard test for explosively welded titanium clad is ASTM B265 B898. This test requires that at least one sample taken from a clad plate must pass a "2-T" bend test. This means that the sample must remain bonded when bent to 2 times its thickness. As long as one sample passes, the entire clad plate passes. Sigmabond clad has a significantly higher bond strength. Specimens from our clads easily pass the required "2-T" band tests, but they do tougher duty than that. They also pass "ZERO-T" side bend tests every time. That's like folding a piece of paper.
Conventional titanium clad cannot survive ZERO-T Side-Bend Test
Sigmabond titanium clad passes ZERO-T Side-Bend Test 100% of the time
Conventional clad bond strength varies across bonded area.
Sigmabond clad bond strength is consistent throughout the bonded area.
CONSISTENT BOND QUALITY
Bond strength of Sigmabond clad material is consistent right out to the edges. This makes for easier fabrication, as the fabricator no longer needs to worry about having to accomodate non-bonded areas.
FASTER TURNAROUND
Sigmabond's new titanium clad is produced by roll bonding. First, a stockpile of small explosively welded clad plates is made. Then customer orders are filled by taking these small clads through the roll bonding process. The material produced in this way is of high bond strength, and perfectly flat, with no need for post-bonding processing such as flattening. Order turnaround can be very quick, weeks instead of months.
Conventional merhod produces only one finished clad from one explosive weld.
Sigmabond method produces many finished clads from a single explosive weld.
FLAT BOND INTERFACE
Sigmabond's mthod creates a clad material with a flat bond interface. This makes for a stronger bond between the two metals. There are no localized hardness issues and no wave-induced intermetallics. Sigmabond's method makes it possible to clad any alloy of titanium, including zirconium, onto any grade of steel. It can also produce larger plate sizes and thinner clads. A thinner titanium layer can mean a significant saving in material cost.
Conventional clad has a wavy bond interface, with localized hardness issues.
Sigmabond clad material has a waveless bond interface, with no localized hardness issues.
EASIER FABRICATION
Sigmabond clad can be heat-treated, hot roll-bonded, formed and welded with immunity. The material survives water quenching right out of the furnace at 1120 deg C. The material is unaffected by high temperatures, which means that it can be seam-welded without resorting to the tricky batten-strap process. This enables faster end product fabrication, and a higher quality product at the end of the day.
Conventional titanium clad is seam-welded by a complex batten-weld process.
Sigmabond titanium clad is easier to weld.
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