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Titanium is one of the most important and valuable metal today. It has become a popular choice due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and other benefits. The key points are super light, very strong, and expensive. However, there are still some common misunderstandings about Titanium.
Myth 1: Titanium is a new material.
Titanium is considered a rare metal because it is dispersed in nature and difficult to extract. But it is relatively abundant, ranking tenth among all elements. However, it is also much more than much cheaper than gold and platinum. Titanium ores are mainly ilmenite and rutile, widely distributed in the crust and lithosphere.
In 1791, Reverend William Gregor in the UK found this metal.
In 1795, Martin Heinrich Klaproth named it Titanium.
In 1940, W.J.Kroll made it into pure Titanium.
Titanium has been discovered for over 200 years. Still, its limited application is primarily due to the difficulties in refining it, which has resulted in most people needing to be made aware of this material. Therefore, Titanium is not a new material.
Myth 2: Titanium is very expensive.
Titanium is indeed expensive, but just compared to common metals like Aluminum, Steel, Copper, etc. It is not as expensive as gold, silver, palladium, etc.
Why is Titanium expensive?
Titanium is known for its high cost due to its scarcity and difficulty in extracting and processing. The complex and energy-intensive process of refining titanium ore into usable metal increases its price.
The traditional titanium smelting process is the “Kroll process,” which uses sodium or magnesium to reduce TiCl4, obtaining Titanium. Since Titanium is made above the melting point, the resulting Titanium is spongy, referred to as “sponge titanium.”
However, the Kroll process is discontinuous, has a long process flow, and involves multiple steps. Additionally, TiCl4 is volatile and corrosive at room temperature, which makes the production cost of sponge titanium very high.
Titanium is less expensive than Steel and Copper in some fields. FD Titanium has more than 15 years of experience in this market. We know why many projects still insist on Titanium even though the price is high. There are many reasons; we just made a titanium tube sample below.
Titanium tubes‘ price is about 13X that of steel tubes, 3X that of 316 stainless tubes, and 2X that of copper tubes. But the density is only half that of Copper and 57% of Steel. The equipment needs to be used for more than 20 years on the sea. The stainless tube needs to be replaced 40 times, the Copper tube needs to be replaced 4 times, but Titanium does not need to be replaced.
Myth 3: Titanium is Very Strong
Titanium is just an element. It has pure Titanium and alloy titanium; pure Titanium is not strong, and its strength is very close to mild carbon steel. Tensile Strength is only 240Mpa to 400Mpa. Low than many Metals.
However, some titanium alloys have high strength and reach 1000Mpa. It is also lighter than many metals because of its low density. It makes titanium alloys widely used in many industrial fields, especially aerospace, where high strength is an important feature.
Myth 4: Titanium is much lighter than other metals.
Aluminum is lighter than Titanium; the density of Aluminum is 2.7*10³kg/m³, which is much lighter than Titanium 4.506*10³kg/m³. But its Weight-to-Strength Radio is the top of all metals—Triple (3X) than Stainless Steel, 1.5X than Aluminum Alloys.
We always say. You are stronger than me, But not light. You are lighter than me, But not strong enough.
In the race bicycle market, the titanium frame is an essential component that provides sufficient strength while maintaining a meager weight for the bicycle.
Myth 5: Titanium is resistant to everything.
With the expansion of the application of Titanium in the general industry, the corrosion resistance characteristics of Titanium in different media have also become the focus of attention. In general, the titanium oxide film is in a stable medium. The film enables the Titanium to maintain corrosion resistance. Therefore, this medium is generally an oxidizing or neutral and weakly reductive medium, such as seawater, chloride solution, oxidizing inorganic acid solution, less than 3% HCl solubility, and less than 4% H2SO4 solution. At the same time, Titanium is not corrosion-resistant in reducing acid solutions.
Although titanium may not be widely used in our daily life. As the price continues to down, now we know the Titanium rings. Titanium Bicycle. Titanium Watches. Titanium Cup. Titanium Golf shaft. Titanium tableware. we can expect to see more and more titanium come to our life.
FD Titanium offers kinds of Titanium Tubes and Componets. Any questions please send us email or left message on below.
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