Titanium coated aluminium pinions

[graemevw 823]

I bought a pinion off ebay, seller told me they were steel. Its not, it looks like titanium coated aluminium.

Ive messaged the seller.

Are they any good? Ive no experience with them. Id imagine they arent much better than stock tamiya ones, but i may be wrong.

 

[Juggular 4965]

Sorry, no answer.  

But I've got them too. They feel sort of like glass coat.  Seems durable.  I tried to scratch it on the neck with a knife.  It was definitely much harder than bare aluminum.  And it didn't chip in chunks or anything.  Nothing lasts forever, I am guessing it would wear out similar to how anodized dye would wear out, only slower.  

 

[graemevw 823]

The surface definitely feels harder, but once thats worn off its still aluminium underneath.

If they wont change it ill try it. One plus point is the teeth are quite wide so should mate with the lunchbox well and spread the load over more area. 

[markbt73 5316]

If it's the gold-colored titanium nitride, you won't scratch it. Or wear it off. I have some drill bits at home with that coating, and they last a good long while before the coating wears off, even under that kind of stress. And I have some 20 year old 64-pich pinions used for oval racing back in the day, and they still look like new.

Aluminum pinions get a bad rap in Tamiya circles, because of the kit-supplied pinions, but hard-anodized or Ti-coated aluminum gears have been around a long while, and work well.

[Jonathon Gillham 4607]

I have a bunch of the Yeah Racing pinions and a mix of others like Core RC and Losi, all of which are coated aluminium. I can't tell the difference between brands (Yeah Racing are very cheap from RCMart, I add them to orders) In a couple of years none are showing signs of wear. I've only had to replace one because a small stone got in and ruined both the spur and pinion. Of course that happened to my Ultima with its Exotek slipper eliminator and the only way to get it going for the weekend was an expensive exotek spur and Losio pinion...

[graemevw 823]

Its not the gold colour of drill bits, its a sort of greeny gold colour. Ive no idea what the coating is. The listing on ebay showed black pinions and no mention of material so i asked what they were made from, they said steel, so i bought one.

Its not.

It does seem decent. Its an 18t for my brushless lunchbox so it will see a fair amount of stress.

Ive no idea what its coated with, im just assuming its titanium to be honest as that seems to be what most aluminium pinions are coated with.

[graemevw 823]

If they want it back to swap for steel ill do that, if they dont want it back and refund me, or ignore me completely, ill try it.

 

[nbTMM 433]

Might just be plain old gold coloured annodising which is still 1000x better than the tamiya gears which are not anodised. If it's meshing against a plastic gear, no need for anything more exotic than anodising, Annodising will last just about forever as long as dirt doesn't get between the gears.

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

I'm using Ti coated aluminium pinion gears in both my TB01 rally car and TT02B. Been in there for a while. No issues.

[SuperChamp82 743]

Agree with @markbt73

Structural veneers like tinite have been used  in aviation / space for a long time.

And any green finish in consumer use prob betrays underlying ‘compromises’ in the base alloy - likely involving copper.

My view is, with right layering, they’re not a worry  

I’d also more question the piece part design - because micromilometre gaps in key areas will destroy stuff way quicker than any coating !