Common Questions about TITANIUM

1. What is titanium?


Titanium is a metallic element found in the earth’s crust. The element occurs as a bright, lustrous metal or a silver-gray or dark gray powder. Its compounds are found in practically all igneous rocks and their sand deposits.




ASTM B338 Grade1 Titanium seamless Tubes





2. What are its qualities?

Titanium has a number of characteristics that make it valuable for industrial and commercial use:

- It’s strong: Titanium is 30% stronger than steel.

- It’s light: Titanium weighs in at 47.90 on the atomic scale, nearly 50% lighter than steel.

-It resists corrosion: When exposed to the atmosphere, titanium forms a tight, tenacious oxide film that resists a variety of materials that corrode other metals. It is especially resistant to salt water corrosion.




Titanium Components





3. Is it newly discovered?

Not exactly. The first mention of titanium in scientific writing occurred in 1791, when an amateur British scientist, William Gregor, analyzed some sand from Comwall and found "a reddish brown calx" he couldn’t identify. He wondered if it was a new metal. Four years later an Austrian chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, confirmed that Gregor had indeed discovered a new element. Klaproth named the element "titanium." The development of titanium alloys for industrial use, however, is relatively new. Wilhelm Kroll of Luxembourg is recognized as the father of the modem titanium industry. In the 1930s, he developed a process to manufacture metallic titanium and refined the process in the 1940s. The Kroll method of manufacturing titanium metal is still used today. The titanium metal industry emerged in the 1950s in response to demand from the emerging aerospace industry which used titanium to build jet planes.




Titanium Ball





4. Why do they call it a "space age" metal?

Until the mid-1970s, more than 85% of titanium produced was used in the aerospace industry. Titanium’s unique properties—density half that of steel, excellent strength retention to 1,000 degrees F and atmospheric corrosion immunity superior to that of other metals—made it ideal for the construction of the engines and frames of jet planes, rockets and space craft. The military uses the metal in weapons like guided missiles and recoil mechanisms in artillery. Since the 1970s, the price of titanium mill products has dropped and the metal has been used in a wide range of industries. The most popular compound is titanium dioxide, common in the production of paint pigment, paper, plastics, glass and ceramics. jewelers might be interested to know that the ’,stars" in star rubies and sapphires are due to the presence of titanium dioxide. Shipbuilders appreciate titanium’s superior resistance to salt water and use it to make ship propellers, shafts and other parts. The Navy uses it on submarines.




Grade2 Welded Titanium Stub Ends





5. Is titanium rare?

No. It is the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. There is at least a 10,000 year supply of titanium ore. Titanium has also been found in meteorites and moon rocks and is present in the sun and other stars.




Titanium Clamps & Fittings





6. Is it expensive?


Yes. The extraction of titanium from its ores is a relatively slow and costly process, which makes the metal expensive. For years the high cost of titanium limited its use to military and aerospace purposes.




Seamless & Welded Titanium Elbows






7. Where does the name come from?


Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the Austrian chemist who confirmed the discovery of the metal, named it after the Titans, the first sons of the earth in Greek mythology. Their mother was Gaea (Earth). They were a race of giant deities who ultimately were overthrown by the Olympian gods. They are associated with great size and strength—hence the word "titanic." The name is appropriate for an extremely strong element taken from the earth.



Grade5 Titanium Heavy Wall Thickness Tubes






8. Are there any drawbacks with titanium?


Two drawbacks.


One is that titanium is more expensive than steel.


The other is that titanium can be stained and scratched quite easily.




Titanium Stamps Grade5

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About Titanium

Titanium is the fourth most abundant structural metal in the earth's crust and is the ninth industrial metal. No other engineering metal has risen so swiftly to pre-eminence in critical and demanding applications.

Titanium and its alloys offer:

• Availability in all forms
• Comparable cost to other high performance materials
• Ready weldability and machinability
• Weight saving - as strong as steel, but half the weight
• Fire and shock resistant
• Favourable cryogenic properties
• Bio-compatibility and non-toxicity
• Applications of Titanium

Titanium and its alloys have proven to be technically superior and cost-effective in a wide variety of aerospace, industrial, marine and commercial applications.

• Aeroengines
• Airframes
• Architectural
• Automotive and road transport
• Condensers
• Cryogenic equipment
• Dental alloys
• Desalination plant
• Downhole logging tools
• Electrochemical anodes
• Flue gas desulphurisation
• Food, brewing and pharmaceutical
• Geothermal plant
• Heat exchangers
• Jewellery manufacture
• Marine
• Medical implants
• Metal extraction equipment
• Military hardware
• Nuclear and environmental safety
• Offshore piping systems
• Offshore production tubulars
• Petrochemical refineries
• Pulp and paper
• Spectacle frames and watches
• Sporting equipment
• Springs
• Steam turbines
• Ultracentrifuges
• Wet air oxidation

In the majority of these and other engineering applications TITANIUM has replaced heavier, less serviceable or less cost effective materials. Designing with TITANIUM taking all factors into account has resulted in reliable, economic, and more durable systems and components, which in many situations have substantially exceeded performance and service life expectations.

Titanium Forged Solid Bars & Rings

If you want to know more about Titanium, please add my account as below:

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Inspection Finished R60702 Zirconium tubes for Heat exchangers

Pictures for Main Product inspection & Testing

1. Pneumatic Test

2. Pneumatic Test

3. Roughness Measurement (Calibration)

Roughness measurement (inside surface) 

5. Roughness measurement (outside surface) 

6. Diameter measurement (end of tube) 

7. Diameter measurement (middle of tube)

8. Wall Thickness Measurement 

9. Length measurement  

10. Verification of marking (Sign Stamp)

11. Packing Condition 

 Above is Mingkun's Inspection procedure, the product is R60702 Zirconium tubes.

Titanium is not "too expensive"

When a Titanium Industry representative talks with maintenance and process engineers, purchasing agents or management in any of our chemical processing "end use" industries, there is always one of two individuals in the audience who consistently raise the concern that"Titanium is too expensive to use in this application."

Alternative material, such as nickel alloys, duplex stainless steels, copper-nickel alloys, etc. are seen by these individuals as being less expensive and more cost effective.

While this may have been true a number of years ago, when pricing of materials was entirely different, it is definitely note true today. In this presentation, I will show that, when using a "Normalized" price approach to compare materials titanium is very cost competitive and can even offer a cost advantage to materials with less or similars corrosion resistance.

This approach can be effectively used to overcome cost-based objections and increase the potential for titanium in the chemical processing industry.

Why is Titanium used in Offshore Applications?

Three principal factors have caused this dramatic switch in materials selection by offshore engineers:

        

Firstly, as highly disruptive failures of stainless steel and copper based alloys have increased, concerns have grown for plant safety and protection of the environment at the lowest practicable life cycle cost.

Secondly, titanium continues to be available at competitive and relatively stable prices, and with this has come supporting growth of fabrication experience and capability to supply a wide range of titanium products, particularly pipes, fittings and systems required by the offshore industry. Since 1990, fifteen Norwegian fabricators have developed the capability to supply titanium taking only a relatively short time to become skilled in all aspects of machining, bending, and welding. The development of cold bending of thin wall titanium pipework has provided a breakthrough in the overall competitiveness of titanium systems.

The third factor in the increased specification and use of titanium has been the improved availability of information to design engineers and offshore operators of the useful combination of properties which titanium uniquely possesses, together with the practical aspects of specifying and using titanium cost effectively. The Titanium Information Group, collaborating with the Norwegian Titanium Technology Forum, has contributed significantly to this achievement. Offshore the cost of replacement is 27 times higher than for similar onshore work. The specification of titanium at the outset, coupled with cost effective design, fabrication, installation and use is seen as wholly appropriate for off shore installations which are now being designed with life cycles of 30 to 50 years. Titanium will frequently be competitive on first cost, and will always be the winner in the life cycle cost contest.

A pilot project in 1994 by Elf Petroleum Norge for the Frigg platform produced results showing that the installed cost of titanium on a 200m by 15cm 2MNm^-2 sea water line was 20% below that of carbon steel. The use of cold bending, eliminated more than 80% of the welding work. Fewer bends and fittings were needed and there was less welding. Flanged joints were made by cold flaring of the pipe ends.

The low weight of the titanium pipe considerably eased installation - one man can handle a 6m length of 15cm diameter schedule 10s pipe without assistance. Post installation surface treatments, shot blasting and painting of the titanium were not required.

Titanium for Offshore Applications

The outstanding performance of titanium and its alloys in sea water, brackish and polluted waters, and petroleum refinery environments has been fully exploited in recent years by the offshore oil and gas industry. 

Today, principally in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, the number and variety of applications of titanium and titanium alloys offshore is increasing at an exponential rate.

From no more than a few hundreds of kilos used in chlorination systems and heat exchangers twenty years ago, total consumption of titanium now exceeds several thousand tonnes, with each new project likely to see greater use of titanium than its predecessor, Persistent corrosion problems with steels, particularly crevice corrosion, have been eliminated by use of titanium for low pressure ballast, fire and service water pipework. Typical consumption for topside pipework now ranges from 50 to 150 tonnes per platform.

Titanium and titanium alloy Plates Mechanical property

Titanium and titanium alloy Plates Mechanical property

(25℃  ASTM B265)

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Grade	Condition	Thickness	Mechanical Property (Min)
			Tensile strength	Yield strength		Elongation	Bend angle
			/Mpa			%	°
Grade1	M	0.3~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0	280~420		170	45 30 30	140 140 -
Grade2	M	0.3~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0	370~530		250	40 30 30	140 130 -
Grade3	M	0.3~1.0 1.1~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0 10.1~25.0	440~620		320	35 30 25 25 20	100 100 80 - -
Grade4	M	0.3~1.0 1.1~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0	540~720		410	30 25 20 20	90 - 80 -
Grade5	M	0.8~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0	895		830	12 10 10	35 30 -
Grade6	M	0.8~1.5 1.6~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10	735~930		685	20 15 12 12	50 50 40 -
Grade7	M	0.8~2.0 2.1~5.0 5.1~10.0	370~530		250	30 25 25	140 130 -
Grade12	M	2.0~5.0 5.1~10.0	485		345	20 15	130 -

                                                                                            

Baoji Mingkun Nonferrous Metal Co.,Ltd

Tel:  +86 917 3253429   Fax: +86 917 3905677

titaniummanufacturer@yahoo.com   http://www.bjmkgs.com