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What kind of metal is the Terminator T-800 model made of? Is it titanium or some other metal?

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The T-800's chassis is typically said to be made of an unspecified "hyperalloy". For example:

The Terminator's an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled, fully armored.

Kyle Reese, script from The Terminator

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles suggests that T-800s are made out of coltan:

John Connor: That's coltan; if that's what you're made of, no wonder you're so dense.

Cameron Phillips: Not density, heat resistance. T-600 models had a titanium alloy endoskeleton, but it was vulnerable to heat. Coltan alloys have a much higher melting point.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Episode 104: Heavy Metal, quoted from the Terminator Wiki

Coltan consists of the elements niobium and tantalum (both metals).

Note, however, that Cameron is a T-900 series so it's possible the T-800s are not made out of coltan and instead use the titanium alloy that the T-600s used.

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  • I suspect if the titanium alloy had been used by other models she would have included them. She's not the type to be unspecific.
    – PointlessSpike
    Jun 23, 2016 at 11:23
  • Wait a minute. Cameron implies that the T-800s were not vulnerable to heat like the T-600s, but "Uncle Bob" was destroyed by lowering him into molten steel, which high a lower melting point than even titanium!
    – John Sensebe
    Jun 23, 2016 at 14:00
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    @JohnSensebe I doubt the writers thought that scene all the way through, but it's likely that a T-800's "brain" chip, which is what really had to be destroyed lest Skynet re-create itself, could not survive immersion in molten steel even if its skeleton could.
    – zwol
    Jun 23, 2016 at 14:41
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    @JohnSensebe It's the boiling point of steel that would matter in such a case, since molten steel is somewhere between the melting and boiling points. For instance, titanium can melt in molten steel, because the melting point of titanium is below the boiling point of steel.
    – al45tair
    Jun 23, 2016 at 15:18
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    @JohnSensebe It's likely quite complicated and you'd need to talk to a metallurgist; clearly you want as low a temperature as you can get away with, subject to things like viscosity, whether (and which) impurities will burn off or dissolve and so on. FWIW, from Googling a bit, pouring temperature for steel is around the 1600 – 1700°C mark, which is just hot enough to melt titanium.
    – al45tair
    Jun 24, 2016 at 17:15
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The exact composition is not specified. The T-800 is made of Hyperalloy, which is a durable metallic alloy of unknown composition that provides the combat chassis and endoskeleton of several Terminator series(including the T-800).

Both Hyperalloy and Polyalloy are very interesting concepts (that could be scientifically-valid even with today's complex technology), but there is no mention of the exact molecular composition of either of them.

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    I believe unobtanium is a crucial part of the recipe.
    – Digital Chris
    Jun 23, 2016 at 14:04
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    @DigitalChris - That was for early models, then they switched to adamantium.
    – void_ptr
    Jun 23, 2016 at 17:48
  • You should provide source for your link. This looks like it was copied from the terminator wiki.
    – Casey Kuball
    Jun 23, 2016 at 19:04

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