LC MotorSports

Our Porsche Titanium Wheel Nuts and Studs are finally completed.

These are Aircraft grade 5 Ti-6AL-4V heat treated to Mil-H-81200-B.

The Studs and Nuts have been tested (individually and Assembled) and exceed: Yield strength testing of 155000 psi, Tensile Strength Testing of 170000 psi with less than 10% Elongation at 36 Rc.

The threads are cut on our CNC screw machine and then heat Treated by a Heat Heat treater specializing in Aircraft titanium products.

While you will find others on the Market for less and (several for More), VERY few of them are Heat Treated and tested.

LC MotorSports is offering our Newest Product Offering at $480.00 per set.
A set includes 20 Nuts / 20 Studs.

Current Stud Lengths are 70 mm
Available next month: Stud Lengths: 90 mm

to order your set please email Chris at sales@merlinmfgusa.com or call.

Ubermensch

Thanks for continuing to produce high quality product offerings and backing them up with data. Can you remind us how the measurements you listed compared to traditional steel studs/nuts.

LC MotorSports

Time for a Science lesson....

The tensile strength of a material is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can take before failure, for example breaking. Typical people swap tensile strength & Yield strength up when talking about the stress a material can withstand without permanent deformation. Usually because both tend to be very close to each other before a part will reach its Ultimate Yield and result in a failure. (a wheel chasing us down the track)

Most studs are rated (8740 chrome moly) at 220,000/ 200,000 psi Tensile/yield strength, and a shear strength of around 72,000 psi.

Where Titanium will typically ( unheat treated Ti grade 5) fall around 130,000 /120,000/79,800 respectively.

By controlling the heat treatment you can and will achieve a stud that competes with the 8740 chrome moly in strength while saving in unsprung weight. Our studs/nuts reached a Tensile of 178,000. yield of 185,000 and a shear of 75,000.

My goal was to produce a product that competes with the "Usual Suspects" but hits that higher level of engineering I want on my own Race Car.

Hope this helps

Geneman

Chris do you make these for older 911s circa 1980s, ...long ones ?
thanks frank

LC MotorSports

Frank, We are producing these in 3 lengths: 70mm ,80mm & 90mm. The 80 & 90 mm lengths are expected back from the heat treatment in 3 weeks.

ace37

Any reason you're testing tensile strength instead of shear? Does bolt bending usually precede failure, or are you trying to simply verify the heat treatment? It looks like in your later post you have a typo and flipped the ultimate and yield strength.

Ti-6-4 is a great performing material. Work hardening I hear is a huge pain so you have to have a good shop or you'll lose a lot of money scrapping it.

Glad to hear race shops are skilled enough to work with higher end alloys and do basic material testing. That's no trivial thing!

LC MotorSports

My formal education is a bit strange for most....Physicist, Mechanical Engineering, Law School.... Paid for my education by serving an apprenticeship as a Toolmaker. Found I disliked Law, Loathed teaching and enjoyed spending time in the shop with my father building cars and motorcycles.

So, after (what seems like) a hundred years of designing Aerospace systems, Metallurgical testing equipment and everything under the sun in plastics (used to own a large molding company)...Dad and I started a little race shop.

As I have designed and constructed testing systems (machines) for companies like ThyssenKrupp ( a little self promotion here), Aerospace frames as well as numerous years providing FEA and carbon chassis design to LOLA, delving into High end testing does not seem a stretch, but a requirement.

I tested Full Failure mode of the studs in Tension and shear (side loading of the stud), and the Nuts in Tension. If you only worry about the shear then you are over looking the greater failure mode of a super alloy... The tensile test on the assembly proves that the "THREADS" (either from the nuts or studs pulling apart) will not fail under High loads at any less of a factor (comparatively ) then 8740 chrome moly.

Geneman

CHRIS CAN YOU SHOOT ME AN EMAIL WHEN the studs are ready for sale. thanks frank

rauscher@wistar.org

ace37

While explainable, that is certainly not the typical path!

I didn't expect to hear you'd tested both, bravo to you! And as an aero engineer I'm glad to hear you went with your passion and work in motorsports. I'm trying to figure out how long I want to stay in aero engineering myself.

Sounds like a great product, best of luck to you and your company! 👍

Ubermensch

Excellent explanation, thank you. A couple of follow up questions since you obviously know what you're talking about:

1. What is the actual weight savings over tradition options?

2. Any fatigue data? How long of a servicer life should one expect?

Thanks,

Shawn

LC MotorSports

The Traditional 8740 chrome moly has a density of .284 lb/in3 vs. The Ti with a density of .16 lb/in3 for almost a 50% reduction.

The fatigue data at this point falls as follows: 45,600 psi at 1000000 cycles... I expecting that the service life will fall within a few 2% of the 8740 studs.

bauerjab

I do not doubt that this is a phenomenally engineered product. But how much weight is actually saved. More importantly, how much lap time can you cut. Or am I missing the point of this product

LC MotorSports

The weight savings is legit.... The lap times are more a function of the driver. A Pro drive will see significant reduction in their lap times.... An average drive will not by adding lighter hardware alone. But part of a weight reduction exercise... A GT class car can achieve the PI that it is shooting for.

I have strived to develop a product that can hold itself with pride in the market place... At the same or nearly the same price with its comparative chrome moly options which run any where from $2 to $16 per stud or nut.

jdistefa

Bravo Chris.

Will get a set of these when we reach time-out on current studs.

LC MotorSports

Matt, I look forward set send you a set