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titanium drive shafts
Bob C - 11/10/04 at 02:25 PM

Just got back from classicconversions (buying a quaife atb - ouch £500). Anyway the very nice man there showed me some titanium driveshafts he can make for £150 a throw (or a pair - but I think it was each).
Oh dear me they were SO cool. He's jigged up for ford fit so I don't think he can make mx5 ones for me :^(
so shiny SO LIGHT
Bob c

stephen_gusterson - 11/10/04 at 03:51 PM

this is a list of densities compared to water.

Titanium shafts look a little over 1/2 the weight of steel shafts........ unless the (extra strenght?) titanium is hollow rather than solid as per the ford parts


Aluminum 2.702
Brass 8.4-8.7
Bronze 7.4-8.9
Cobalt 8.9
Copper 8.93
Gold, pure 19.32
Gold, alloys 15.3-19.3
Iron, pure 7.86
Iron, wrought 7.4-7.9
Iron, cast (gray) 7.03-7.13
Lead 11.34
Magnesium 1.738
Mercury 13.546
Nickel 8.9
Platinum 21.45
Plutonium 19.8
Silver, pure 10.5
Silver, alloys 10-Dec
Steel 7.7-7.93
Tin 7.3
Titanium 4.5
Tungsten 19.3
Uranium 18.9
Zinc 7.14

Mark Allanson - 11/10/04 at 08:35 PM

They would sound great in an Exchange and Mart advert when selling the car, but I cannot see any other benefit other than pub chat

stephen_gusterson - 11/10/04 at 09:14 PM

you could spray the originals silver and lie and save a lot of money!

or

buy the real deal and save about 213.591245753 grammes per side

atb

steve



[Edited on 11/10/04 by stephen_gusterson]

Bob C - 11/10/04 at 11:16 PM

Maybe 1/2kg of unsprung weight - which is not easy to come by, equivalent to using an expensive alloy bodied damper instead of a steel one. Also only £50 or £60 more than custom steel driveshafts.
I agree it's not very locost.....
Bob C
PS you can only count half the weight as unsprung of course

gazza285 - 12/10/04 at 05:08 AM

Not forgetting the reduction in rotating mass.

atomic - 12/10/04 at 08:05 AM

I've seen a few companies producing Carbon Fiber Drivesahfts.
Then main benafits to these types of driveshafts are reduced rotating mass resulting in lower transmition loss and reduced drive train harmonics

MikeRJ - 12/10/04 at 01:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by atomic
I've seen a few companies producing Carbon Fiber Drivesahfts.
Then main benafits to these types of driveshafts are reduced rotating mass resulting in lower transmition loss and reduced drive train harmonics


I could certainly see how the inherent damping properties of composite materials such as carbon fibre could reduce drivetrain harmonics, but I don't understand how they would reduce transmission loss.

The reduction in rotating mass in the case of a driveshaft would have miniscule effects on performance as the small diameter means the polar moment of inertia is very low to start with (compared to e.g. the wheels and clutch/flywheel).

Jon Ison - 12/10/04 at 04:35 PM

given the choice i would have titanium drive shafts, springs too, aint got the £££.

atomic - 13/10/04 at 07:59 AM

Carbon driveshaft would reduce trans loss buy the simple fact require less power to rotate. The driveshafts maybe only a small part of the whole package but when you add all these parts together... you get the picture.

Have a look at http://www.torqline.com/products.php

MikeRJ - 13/10/04 at 09:02 AM

quote:
Originally posted by atomic
Carbon driveshaft would reduce trans loss buy the simple fact require less power to rotate.


Driveshafts themselves require NO power to rotate. They do of course require energy input to increase angular velocity due to their polar moment of interia, but as said, it's negligible compared to the road wheels and tyres, brake disks/drums, differential internals etc.

In fact, I can't think of any part of the drivetrain that would cause less effect by lightening than the driveshafts. The only real advantage is the unsprung weight reduction.

atomic - 13/10/04 at 01:23 PM

Just got a price for one of the Carbon propshafts for my S2000 Engine/Box to 7.5" Cosworth Diff £1200....Ouch

Think I'm going to pass that one up.