Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This business about the titanium M6 has always bothered me. I'm no expert but the concept of plating (electroplating) titaniunm on to another metal (alloy) always struck me as not being possible. With that in mind, I contacted a friend of mine, a PhD metallurgist. He wrote the following, and I quote, "My guess is that it isn't electroplated, but it certainly can be deposited via PVD (Physical vapor deposition). Those golden drill bits you see at Sears are titanium nitride coated. Run the same process in a vacuum instead of nitrogen and you get plain old titanium on the substrate." There's gotta be somebody out there who has the idea of exactly what Leica did. I wonder if they cast the M6 titanium? But, that means it would have had to be cast in a vacuum. If you melt titanium in air, it will catch fire. So, who knows? Regards Kurt - -- Kurt H. Miska GERMAN BUSINESS TRANSLATIONS Ann Arbor, Michigan khmiska@umich.edu http://www-personal.umich.edu/~khmiska/ - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html