An intermetallic titanium aluminide material displaying increased fracture toughness and fatigue strength, and a process enabling the formation of the material into components, have been developed. Exploiting the material’s low specific gravity and high modulus of elasticity, it was employed to manufacture a piston pin, enabling the achievement of a 17% reduction in weight and a 28% increase in rigidity against a conventional nitriding steel piston pin. The developed piston pin has contributed to increased speed, power and long-distance reliability in V10 engines, which have been required to complete two race distances since 2005.
Article of Honda R&D Technical Review F1 Special (The third Era Activities) (248 - 250)