Materials

TITANIUM

Our basic material being titanium alloy we are very serious and strict about the suppliers. Our supplier certifies its production line in accordance to standards ISO-9000, quite a range of its products is certified by world known companies such as British Aerospace, General Electric, Boeing. The production meets the requirements of US standards ASTM. All the supplies are documented with the test results (chemical composition and physical properties required by the corresponding standard).
All our frames are made from cold rolled 3al - 2.5v Ti (usually tube set in case of full titanium frame or lugs in case of composite: titanium-carbon fiber frame) alloys and 6al - 4v titanium alloy is used for dropouts and other parts where more stiffness required. The tubes are carefully chosen and depending on the size and type of frame, required the mix of wall thickness and length of butting etc are assembled for manufacturing.
In order to understand the advantages of titanium let compare it to other widely used and known materials. Titanium is 45% lighter than steel but 65% heavier than aluminum. The ultimate tensile strength of titanium is unsurpassed, aluminum poor tensile strength requires the wall thickness of the tubing to be of such size to outweigh any advantage it might have, it also ability to has very poor elongation (the stretch or bend). The aluminum frames have to be built very rigid. Steel is heavier than titanium and the elongation is approximately 30% less than titanium, it also corrodes quite happily. Titanium is by far the finest material to build cycle frames and exceeds all other materials.
So titanium is strong, light, and corrosion free material, which is why the aerospace, aircraft, and the racecar industry use so much of the stuff. However it is expensive to produce and difficult to work with but the finished result is excellent.

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber is produced by the controlled oxidation, carbonization and graphitization of carbon-rich organic precursors, which are already in fiber form. The most common precursor is polyacrylonitrile (PAN), because it gives the best carbon fiber properties, but fibers can also be made from pitch or cellulose. Variation of the graphitization process produces either high strength fibers (at ~2600øC) or high modulus fibers (at ~3000øC) with other types in between. Once formed, the carbon fiber has a surface treatment applied to improve matrix bonding and chemical sizing which serves to protect it during handling.
Carbon fibers are usually grouped according to the modulus band in which their properties fall. These bands are commonly referred to as: high strength (HS), intermediate modulus (IM), high modulus (HM) and ultra high modulus (UHM). The filament diameter of most types is about 5-7mm. Carbon fiber has the highest specific stiffness of any commercially available fiber, very high strength in both tension and compression and a high resistance to corrosion, creep and fatigue.
In our production we are using PAN-based high strength carbon T700. It is successfully tested in cycle industry material with following mechanical properties:

In contact with epoxy carbon can be formed in various shapes of tubing and forks. The optimal ratio of the weight and strength allows achieving high dynamical frame parameters with new great design.
Our carbon fiber tube and rear fork supplier is based in Italy well known in bicycle society company Columbus.

Machinery

Most important part of our technological process is welding titanium. In order to follow the technology we using specially designed TIG welding machines and argon transfer facilities. Additionally to our universal CNC milling and turning machines the factory equipped with new specialized machinery line with automatic frame building process control (Bike Machinery, Columbus group, Italy).

Some short words about the equipment:
MIRA - milling machine for mitering the tubing extremities having a preprogrammed angle of cut.
PAVO - milling machine for machining rear triangle bridges.
URANIA - press machine used with moulds to shape the tubes for frames (curves on chainstays for instance).
UNIVER - milling machine to work on the bicycle frame and fork or separate tubes.
TESEO - milling machine for milling cutters regrinding and resharping.
SATURNO - digital truering and adjustment table.

CAD Designing

Every TiTerra frame is made like a perfect suite for particular customer, where all of his particular wishes are combined with our knowledge of bicycles and building technology - to make the best quality frame. Each time new geometry and design is carefully drawn and checked in AutoCAD2004 to make sure that the frame is not only nice looking, but also functional (meets the requirements of the Shimano Tech Book and others, if necessary).

Assembly

Each production stage provided with respected drawings. Manufacturing starts with cutting raw tubing by size, cleaning carefully the surface from dust and then we make without damaging of internal structure. When it is ready, we put them all on an adjusted jig together with CNC machined rear dropouts and welded forks. After checking geometry on a jig, all parts are tightly fixed and places of welding are cleaned again.
Now the frame is ready for tack welding. As quality of welding titanium is extremely critical to impurities and oxygen, we use inert gas argon (highly purified argon - up to 99.995% purity!). During welding even very high-qualified welder have to follow specially developed technology to get the highest quality of welding. Tack welded frame is taken off the jig and its geometry is checked on control table. Just after that final welding is made.

Checking and finishing

When welded, the frame shall be placed again on the control table to be checked carefully for more then 20 sizes! Then final machining is performed: internal cutting and facing head tube, as well as threading and facing bottom bracket shell. We always make these operations after welding because titanium is rather sensitive to heat treatment. In order to match perfectly an aluminium seat post (without scratching!) with seat tube we always press a 100-mm long aluminium insert into the seat tube and ream it after the welding.

Personal step responsibility

Each workman is responsible for the quality of the operation he executes; his sign manual after the operation executing testifies that. The workman is also responsible for the parts reception (no defects before the operation). The workman who has detected a defect before or during the operation gets a bonus that who has allowed it imposed a fine.

Final measurements control checking (QC certificate)

Once the production is over the superintendent makes the item actual parameters final measurements and logs into the item's Quality Certificate all the deviations of the ideal parameters indicated on the drawing. If a tolerance is exceeded the item either returns for revision or rejected; the superintendent decides of it. The revised item is re-inspected.

Product Serial Number

If all the parameters lie within the tolerance limits the product is considered normal and numbered. The numbering system allows an easy tracing of the production date and its absolute number as well. The number is put on the product and registered in the product quality certificate. One copy of this certificate goes to the customers, the second one to the office.
From this number one can deduct at any time (e. g. on having a customer's claim) the parameters and sizes of the product before shipment, the workmen involved in the manufacturing, the material type and mark.