Force Needed to Roll a Block of Titanium

What is "titanium steel"?

Do you mean Beta C?

Probably. :) Those comics often reflected what was in the news, and if Beta C was patented in 1962 that makes it very likely. But I'm only looking for a rough ballpark figure - I realize that there are many factors at play.

For a six inch thick slab of Ti your number is probably high. More like 150 tons. Yield modulus is more at work here than shear.

OK, now let the nit picking begin.

Thanks. That sounds less insane! And presumably there's a square law here, so halving the thickness would greatly reduce the required force?

Sure. Ti is too brittle to roll in a thick section like 6 inches, as they show anyway. Hey, it's a comic strip. If you want to go with 100,000 tons of force to roll it, go for it.

Did anyone notice the rivets in the plate? So maybe it wasn't a solid piece but a box section?

If it were bent in a Press... A v Bottom Horizontal with a 1/2 Round 1" Plate Vertical on the center.My guess is: At least 1/2 a million tons! bending from both ends would need multiplied force by Thousands...

I don't think the shape would make it unacceptable for mailing, but the weight would! Even if only 3" thick, guessing dimensions of 35 x 30 x 7.5cm gives a weight of 35kg or 78lb if solid.

This comic strip (first picture) reminds me of the time I worked in an Engineering design office, alongside a senior engineer, back in the early 1970's.

Our 'boss' had a very screwed up attitude, and inflated opinion of his design ability!

In reply to many a question like "Can't we make it like this?", my senior engineer friend would say "What shall I make it from TSMKTM?" (The strongest material known to man).

Sadly, the inflated self opinion of some managers and decision makers in the area of Engineering Design, has degraded the performance of many companies.

Wow, that is the subject for its own thread!

Nearly all of those of us who have been in the profession for awhile have our "war" stories.

Mine is the time I worked at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in the late 80's and ran into a department manager who set his opinion up against 12 other technical professionals (including manufacturing and feasibility engineers) by saying a simple part I designed couldn't be made. Actually, I designed it with looser tolerances and specific dimensions based on a commercially available part from a non-approved vendor. It was quicker to simply make a new part than to get approval status for the manufacturer and everybody except this fool approved the new design. His reason for saying the part couldn't be manufactured, even though two Manufacturing Engineering people said "no problem"? He simply didn't think so, and had no particular reason....except (I think) that he was in a position of decision-making power and needed to show that off. The only alternative was a difficult repair that made it hard on our customers in the field.

BTW, I tested my proposed design by repairing a test engine with the commercially available part. Worked perfectly and the engine was returned to a customer and for all I know it's still flying.

This wasn't the first time his engineering "expertise" shot down a viable design in favor of one of his mental masturbations. Everybody in our design group had a similar story. And to be blunt, he wasn't any better a manager than he was an engineer.

With respect to the OP, The Thing is a BIG guy. By my estimate the "block" is 24" square by 6" thick. Material of construction is two plates of 3/4" A36 steel riveted to a 4-1/4" thick titanium (Ti-6Al-2Sn-1.5Zr-1Mo-0.35Bi-0.1Si) block. Thus, "Titanium Steel Block."

Assuming all the rivets to be in pure shear, the force necessary to make the first bend, compressing the inside plate and elongating the outside plate while pure bending the titanium, ≈702X10⁹kipf. Now assuming The Thing's hands are 10" long and the mechanical advantage of each . . . this is silly.

The rivets would shear, the titanium would crack and break. the heat generated would burn anyone but The Thing's hands. Other than the afore mentioned weight issue, the block was much better suited for mailing when it was square.

-A-

Thanks for the graphic! But given that the artist would never lie (this was Jack Kirby after all), can we not infer that the welded bolts were added at an early stage, to keep the outer casing together while it was welded solid? And if the brittle titanium core would break, would not the more pliable steel casing hold it together?