ForMatter/Materials/metal/Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V)

mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v

Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V)

α-β titanium alloy, aerospace-standard · Ti-6Al-4V, Grade 5, TC4, ASTM B265 Grade 5

highlast updated 2026-04-27

The titanium alloy that dominates the titanium-alloy tonnage worldwide — 6% aluminum, 4% vanadium, balance Ti. Twice as strong as commercially-pure titanium and only marginally heavier. The standard jet-engine fastener metal, the standard medical-implant alloy, the standard high-end mountain-bike frame metal, and the only aerospace material that keeps making sense in the same room as the words "weight budget."

Two-phase α-β titanium alloy per ASTM B265 / B381 / F136. HCP α + BCC β microstructure tunable through solution treatment + aging (STA temper raises tensile strength to 1100 MPa). Density 4.43 g/cm³. Liquidus 1660 °C. Vickers ~340 HV annealed, ~380 HV STA. Galls badly during machining; requires sharp tools, low surface speeds, copious coolant. Over 70% of all titanium-alloy grades melted are a sub-grade of Ti-6Al-4V — the alloy is the dominant titanium substrate for additive metal (DMLS / SLM / EBM) as well.

Mechanical

tensile strength (annealed) · MPa950
tensile strength (STA) · MPa1100
yield strength (annealed) · MPa880
elongation (annealed) · %14
hardness Vickers (annealed)340
density · kg/m³4430

source: ASTM B265; AMS 4928

Thermal

liquidus · °C1660
thermal conductivity · W/m·K6.7

source: CRC Handbook

Sustainability

embodied carbon · kg CO₂e/kg47
embodied carbon recycled · kg CO₂e/kg9
recyclabilityhigh but harder than CP grades — the V content requires segregated scrap streams to preserve grade
biodegradableFalse
certificationsASTM F136 (medical implant grade), AMS 4928 (aerospace bar), ISO 5832-3

source: Editorial estimate from ICE / Granta CES EduPack class databases — industry mean, with cradle-to-gate boundary unless otherwise noted. Embodied carbon for any specific product depends on supplier mix, recycled content, and energy grid; verify against a primary source before using these numbers in a sustainability claim.

visual: silver-gray as machined, accepts anodizing but with a less saturated palette than commercially-pure grades
tactile: stiff, light for its strength
weight perception: light

PBR starter values

finish · metallic — open for table, JSON, host snippets, downloads

Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere metallic finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →

# finish:                   metallic
albedo                      #7a808a
metallic                    1.00
roughness                   0.25
ior                         1.45
transmission                0.00
clearcoat                   0.00
sheen                       0.00
anisotropic                 0.00

copy as JSON

{
  "albedo": "#7a808a",
  "metallic": 1.0,
  "roughness": 0.25,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "transmission": 0.0,
  "clearcoat": 0.0,
  "sheen": 0.0,
  "anisotropic": 0.0
}

Blender 4.x Python

# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) · finish: metallic
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value         = (0.1946, 0.2159, 0.2542, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value           = 1.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value          = 0.250
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value                = 1.450
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Coat Weight"].default_value        = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Sheen Weight"].default_value       = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Anisotropic"].default_value        = 0.000

KeyShot Python (lux)

# KeyShot 11+ — lux Python API, Generic material
# Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) · finish: metallic
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse",      (122, 128, 138))   # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic",     1.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness",    0.250)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)

Substance pbrMetalRough

{
  "_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
  "_about": "Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) \u00b7 finish: metallic",
  "baseColor": {
    "r": 0.1946,
    "g": 0.2159,
    "b": 0.2542
  },
  "metallic": 1.0,
  "roughness": 0.25,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "opacity": 1.0,
  "anisotropyLevel": 0.0,
  "_notes": "Channels listed are the standard Substance pbrMetalRough output. Drop into a Uniform Color node per channel, or as the constant input on a layered stack."
}

glTF 2.0 Metallic-Roughness

{
  "asset": {
    "version": "2.0",
    "generator": "ForMatter"
  },
  "materials": [
    {
      "name": "mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v",
      "pbrMetallicRoughness": {
        "baseColorFactor": [
          0.1946,
          0.2159,
          0.2542,
          1.0
        ],
        "metallicFactor": 1.0,
        "roughnessFactor": 0.25
      },
      "extensions": {
        "KHR_materials_ior": {
          "ior": 1.45
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

USD Preview Surface

# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) · finish: metallic
def Material "mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v" {
    token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_titanium_grade5_6al4v/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>

    def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
        uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
        color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.1946, 0.2159, 0.2542)
        float   inputs:metallic     = 1.000
        float   inputs:roughness    = 0.250
        float   inputs:ior          = 1.450
        float   inputs:opacity      = 1.000
        float   inputs:clearcoat    = 0.000
        token   outputs:surface
    }
}

↓ download glTF material

CNC milling on swarf

surface speed (carbide)90–180 (the aerospace alloy; harder than CP grades, rapid tool wear)

chipload per tooth2–4 (1/4-inch endmill)

coolantflood mandatory; high-pressure flood improves tool life dramatically

swarf-compatible toolsend 1/8end 1/4drill 1/8drill 1/4

The Ti-6Al-4V aerospace and medical-implant alloy. Pushes the limits of either swarf machine — best results with shallow stepdowns, small tools, aggressive flood. For student work on Pruitt-tier titanium pieces, plan multiple shorter sessions over single long ones.

Machinery's Handbook 30th ed., 'Titanium Machining' (Ti-6Al-4V); Sandvik high-temperature-alloys guide; ASTM F136 medical-implant titanium datasheet.

→ try this material in swarf

ProcessCNC Milling · Anodizing · TIG Welding · Laser Cutting · Sandblasting (Abrasive Blasting)

Substitutes

Titanium Grade 2 (Commercially Pure)

Titanium Grade 9 (Ti-3Al-2.5V)

Stainless Steel 316L

Finishes that suit this material

Bead-blast · matte

PVD DLC (diamond-like carbon, black) · matte

Titanium / niobium color anodize · iridescent

Second life

repairabilitymoderate — TIG-weldable in argon purge; welds heat-affect the alpha-beta microstructure and may need post-weld heat treatment.

recyclabilityhigh — Ti-6Al-4V scrap is dedicated stream at aerospace and medical-implant recyclers.

disposal pathspecialty titanium recycler; medical-implant titanium has chain-of-custody traceability requirements.

typical longevity50 years (typical)

failure modes

fatigue cracking at stress concentrations (the canonical aerospace failure)
stress-corrosion cracking in chloride environments at sustained high stress
creep at elevated temperatures

ASM Handbook Vol. 2; ASTM B348 Ti-6Al-4V datasheet; ASTM F136 medical-implant grade.

Citations

en.wikipedia.org — Titanium alloy
en.wikipedia.org — Ti 6Al 4V
standard · ASTM B265 — Titanium and Titanium Alloy Strip, Sheet, and Plate (Grade 5).
standard · ASTM F136 — Wrought Titanium-6Aluminum-4Vanadium ELI Alloy for Surgical Implant Applications.

Concordance

House vocabulary — terms ForMatter uses with intent.

anisotropic: Direction-dependent. Wood reads differently along the grain than across it; rolled steel is stiffer along the rolling direction. The Principled-BSDF anisotropic input rotates the highlight to match.
anodize: Electrochemical oxide layer grown on aluminum (Type II / III), titanium, or niobium. Type II accepts dye for color; titanium / niobium use voltage-driven thin-film interference instead of dye. The CMF entry covers the seal step that locks the color in.
application: What the thing IS, in the world. The third entity, peer of material and process. A water bottle, a chair, an extruded-aluminum profile.
BRDF: Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function. The math behind how a surface returns light for any incoming and outgoing direction. The PBR model is a parameterized BRDF.
channeled: A voice block written within a dead author's philosophy, marked and cited. Distinct from a verbatim quote. Roland Barthes channeled on PMMA reads like Barthes; the citation attributes the lineage.
CMF: Color, Material, Finish — the trio designers specify together when handing a part off for production. ForMatter's Finish entity is the F in CMF: 10 categories — polish / anodize / patina / plate / coating / texture / cut / mold_finish / glaze / stone_finish — and entries under each. Every finish entry pairs to the materials and processes it suits.
choral fugue: ForMatter's register. Subject stated plainly (freshman tier), answered in technical and sensorial registers, countersubjects from linked processes and applications, citations as final stretto. Voice blocks where canon attaches.
clearcoat: A second specular layer over the base surface. Glossy plastics and lacquered woods get a clearcoat term in the PBR table. IOR 1.5 by default.
compatibility (process): Each process entry lists which materials it can work. The cross-ref renders as sphere pills so the gallery feeling extends inward.
confidence: Each entry tagged high / medium / low. A senior's low-confidence-with-three-citations beats a freshman's high-confidence-with-none. The label is a contract with the reader, not a brag.
crystalline (finish): A faceted-surface read — gemstones, glassy minerals, ice. Drives PBR defaults: IOR 2.42 (diamond), transmission 1.0, low roughness.
derive_pbr(): The build's single source of truth — sphere palette + finish enum → Principled-BSDF starter values. One function feeds the entry-page table, the per-host snippets, the glTF export, and the Three.js Live Preview.
finish (entity): ForMatter's CMF layer — surface treatments and conditions a designer chooses for a given material and process. Categories: polish, anodize, patina, plate, coating, texture, cut, mold_finish, glaze, stone_finish. Distinct from the sphere `finish` enum (metallic / matte / glossy / etc.) which is the visual register of the proxy.
freshman / senior register: Two registers in every entry — the plain freshman description and the technical / sensorial one. Same database, two readers, no extra subscription.
glTF: GL Transmission Format — the open 3D-asset standard every modern app reads. ForMatter emits a .gltf material doc per material. Open standard, designer-friendly handoff.
IOR: Index of Refraction. How much light bends entering the surface. Air 1.0, water 1.33, glass 1.5, diamond 2.42. Drives transmission and the specular term.
iridescent (finish): Hue-shifted accent over base. Anodized titanium and niobium, opal, paraíba. Drives PBR defaults: low metalness, full iridescence, clearcoat.
iridescence: Thin-film interference layer over the base material. KHR_materials_iridescence in glTF, MeshPhysicalMaterial.iridescence in Three.js. Tunable from the FOCUS slider on iridescent / pearlescent entries. The ior and thickness range together set the visible color sweep — opal uses a 100–800 nm thickness range (film, not wavelength) to span the full visible band.
lite-PBR: ForMatter's PBR approach — Principled-BSDF starter values per entry, no measured BRDFs, no commercial assets. Reasonable defaults from the finish enum, per-entry numeric overrides where you have a real reason.
Live Preview: The Three.js shader ball that replaces the static CSS sphere on every entry page. One render path for every category — metals, woods, polymers, ceramics, paints, textiles, gemstones, glass. Same derive_pbr() values, real-time lit by a synthetic studio environment, draggable. Optional — toggle in Preferences.
material: What the thing is MADE OF. The first entity. Aluminum 6061, white oak, soda-lime glass.
metallic (finish): Specular highlight, deep shadow rim. Drives PBR defaults: metalness 1, low roughness, IOR 1.45. Polished steel, gold, copper.
mood board: Folded into the Project workspace at /project.html. The mood-board upload, palette extraction, character chips, and matcher results all live alongside the collected items grid and the save .formatter / save PDF / open .formatter actions — one feature, one page.
Ollama: Local-LLM scaffold on the Project page. Off by default. When toggled on in Preferences AND Ollama is reachable at localhost:11434, the natural-language input box ('something soft and warm with a wet read') asks the model to translate the description into character-chip toggles. Never invents material properties; the LLM only translates intent into existing chip vocabulary. The keyword fast-path (chips alone, no LLM) is the default — see suite-wide ai-integration pattern.
project: The full workspace at /project.html — collected materials, processes, applications, finishes plus an optional mood-board image whose dominant colors search the library for matches. Save / open .formatter files round-trip the project state.
patina: A chemical color shift on metal — heat-blue on steel, fume-black on silver, verdigris on copper, gun-blue on tool steel, ferric on copper. CMF-layer entry; cited by both the material and the process pages that produce it.
PBR: Physically-Based Rendering. The shading model every modern 3D app uses, parameterized by metallic / roughness / IOR / transmission / clearcoat / sheen. ForMatter publishes starter values for every material entry.
SPI mold finish: Society of the Plastics Industry mold-cavity finish standard. A1 / A2 / A3 (diamond polish, mirror), B1 / B2 / B3 (paper, semi-gloss), C1 / C2 / C3 (stone, matte), D1 / D2 / D3 (dry blast, textured). The finish prints from the mold cavity onto the molded part — a designer picks the SPI grade with the molder when specifying the tool.
Principled BSDF: Blender's name for the consolidated PBR shader. Most other apps ship the same shader under different names (Standard Surface, ShaderGraph, Substance). One node, every output.
process: How the material is MADE INTO the thing. The second entity. Cast, machined, kerf-bent, anodized, planished, granulated. Process is a peer of material, not a footnote.
quote: A voice block carrying a verbatim quotation from a living author, with citation. Distinct from a channeled block. Living = quote only; the rule is enforced at the schema layer.
roughness: Microsurface scatter. 0 is mirror-smooth; 1 is fully diffuse. Most real surfaces sit between 0.2 and 0.8.
sphere proxy: ForMatter's visible-character stand-in for every material. CSS-gradient driven by the entry's palette and finish, not a baked render. Honest about being a proxy, scales cheaply, tweakable in one place.
substitute: A peer material that could fill a similar role. Cross-references render as sphere pills inside an entry — the gallery feeling extends inward.
transmission: How much light passes through. 1 is fully transparent; 0 is opaque. Glass, gemstones, clear plastics carry transmission.
PVD: Physical Vapor Deposition — vacuum-chamber sputter or cathodic-arc deposition of a thin ceramic film onto a metal substrate. The CMF-layer's modern coating chemistry: TiN (gold), ZrN (champagne), CrN (pewter), TiCN (warm bronze / rose-gold), AlTiN (charcoal-anthracite, near-black), DLC (deep black). Hard, doesn't tarnish, paint-thin.
VDI 3400: German engineering reference standard for mold-cavity texture (Erodieren bearbeitete Werkstückoberflächen). The full scale runs reference plates 0–45 by Ra value; production specs typically draw from 12–45 because plates 0–11 require diamond-mirror polish on the mold cavity and are rarely commissioned in commercial tooling. Pairs with the SPI standard; both define what gets cut into the mold.
voice block: A versal block where a real authored voice attaches to the material or process. Schema-tagged with status (living / dead) and mode (quote / channeled). Citations always.
woodgrain (finish): Directional sheen with grain ring. Drives PBR defaults: anisotropic 0.6, medium roughness, no metalness. Every wood entry.

Press ⌘⇧/ to open this panel from anywhere · Esc to close.

Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V)

Mechanical

Thermal

Sustainability

PBR starter values

CNC milling on swarf

Second life

Citations

Concordance

ForMatter

Why this exists

Sources

Rules of the house

Sister apps

Preferences