GRADE GUIDE · GRADE 5
Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V, UNS R56400) is the world's most-used titanium alloy: 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium lift the yield floor to about 828 MPa at just 4,430 kg/m³. It offers the best strength-to-weight ratio of any common engineering metal, which is why aerospace consumes half of all titanium produced as this one grade.
Also listed as: Ti-6Al-4V · UNS R56400 · EN 3.7165 · TI6AL4V
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Where Grade 2 is bought for corrosion, Grade 5 is bought for strength-per-kilogram: stronger than most alloy steels at 44% of the weight. Beyond airframes, that arithmetic sells it for motorsport and marine hardware, high-speed machine components, medical implants (as its ELI variant) and lightweight tooling — anywhere moving mass costs money.
It reaches workshops almost entirely as bar and plate for machining, and machining it is patient work: low speeds, heavy coolant, rigid setups, and titanium's poor thermal conductivity concentrating heat at the tool edge. That machining cost is exactly why certified bar ends and plate drops are worth buying surplus — much of a Grade 5 part's price is the metal, and off-cut sizing fits one-off and prototype work naturally.
Grade 5 is an alloy built for strength — three times the yield of CP Grade 2 — while Grade 2 is pure titanium bought for corrosion duty and easy fabrication. Structural and machined parts take 5; exchangers and process equipment take 2.
It holds strength at temperature and conducts heat poorly, so the cutting zone runs hot and tools wear fast. Slow speeds, generous coolant and sharp tooling manage it — budget several times the machining time of steel.
Yes, by TIG or electron-beam under full inert shielding, with properties close to parent metal. The same no-air rule as all titanium applies; contaminated welds are brittle and must be cut out.