Applications of Titanium and Titanium Alloys

2023,10,21

Titanium and titanium alloy materials, although rich reserves, the price is very expensive, this is because titanium is chemically active at high temperatures, its smelting technology and the operating environment is very harsh, it must be smelted at high temperatures, vacuum conditions, the temperature often reaches 800 ℃ or more, compared to the iron and steel smelting to be much more difficult. Therefore, whenever titanium alloy is mentioned, people think that it is a high-grade metal material with low production and expensive price, which is seldom used.

At present, due to the excellent performance of titanium alloy in light weight, high strength and high temperature resistance, titanium and titanium alloy materials are widely used in the manufacture of sophisticated weapons and important national weapons, such as especially suitable for application in the aerospace field. Examples of applications are as follows:

Chemical industry

1. Alkali industry

The appearance of titanium cooler in the alkali industry can be a good solution to the phenomenon of unqualified chlorine output due to the irrationality of the traditional cooling process. At the same time, it has changed the face of chlor-alkali industry, and the life span of the titanium alloy cooler can be as long as 20 years.

2. Salt industry

Currently more advanced salt production process for the vacuum salt production, and this process produces high-temperature brine will cause serious damage to the carbon steel structure, resulting in equipment leakage phenomenon. Titanium steel composite structure for the heating chamber and evaporation chamber, can effectively prevent the formation of salt scale, improve the quality of salt production, and at the same time reduce the high concentration of brine in the process of evaporation of the corrosion of the pipe wall, to extend the maintenance cycle.

Aerospace field

1. Aviation industry

Titanium alloy application in aviation is divided into aircraft structure titanium alloy and engine structure titanium alloy, aircraft titanium alloy structural parts are mainly used in landing gear parts, frame, beams, fuselage skin, heat shield and so on. Russia's IL-76 aircraft using high-strength BT22 titanium alloy manufacturing landing gear and bearing beams and other key components; Boeing 747 main landing gear drive beam material for Ti-6Al-4V, forging 6.20 meters long, 0.95 meters wide, the quality of 1,545 kg; high strength and high toughness Ti-62222S titanium alloy was used in the C-17 aircraft horizontal stabilized surface of the rotor shaft in the key parts. Titanium alloys are used in aircraft engines for pressurizer discs, blades, drums, high-pressure pressurizer rotors, pressurizer magazines and so on. Boeing 747-8GENX engine fan blade leading edge and tip, the use of titanium alloy protective sleeve, in the 10-year service period only made 3 times replacement.

2. Space industry

Titanium alloys stand out from other materials because of the extreme working conditions of space vehicles, which require high technical skills in the structural design of the material, as well as its excellent properties and functionality. In the astronautical equipment in the 1960s in the United States Apollo program in the spacecraft two-person cabin and closed cabin wing beams and ribs are made of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn, lining is made of pure titanium; Germany MT Aerospace Company prepared a high-strength Ti-15V-3Cr alloy propulsion system tanks, and used in the European Alpha Communications Satellite mega-platform; Russian titanium alloys in the aerospace engineering on the There are many examples of applications, such as energy launch vehicle using a heavy 3.5t BT23 titanium alloy large die forgings and forgings, in addition to titanium alloys are also used in liquid fuel rocket engine fuel tanks, cryogenic liquid storage tanks and liquid hydrogen transfer pump impeller.

Similarly, the rapid development of domestic aerospace projects, titanium alloys have been widely used, the 1970 Dongfang No. 1 satellite to the current Shenzhou series of spacecraft, Chang'e detector, etc. have used titanium alloys, in addition to China's development of the use of liquid hydrogen in the environment of cryogenic TA7ELI titanium alloy cylinders have been used in the Long March series of carrier rockets; HITEC with TC4 titanium alloy prepared by the lunar rover's wheels; in addition, our country also uses the In addition, China also uses BT20 and other high-strength titanium alloys to manufacture missile engine cases, nozzles and other components.

Ship field

Titanium and titanium alloys are widely used in nuclear submarines, deep submarines, atomic energy icebreakers, hydrofoils, hovercrafts, minesweepers, as well as propellers, whip antennas, seawater pipelines, condensers, heat exchangers, acoustic devices, fire-fighting equipment. Such as the U.S. “Sea Cliff” deep submarine equipped with titanium observation and manipulation module, diving depth of up to 6100m; Japan's Toho Titanium Company and Fuji New Shipbuilding jointly constructed the “Molybdenum Day Ⅱ” all-titanium speedboats, a period of time in the U.S. is a best seller; China's first independently designed and integrated. China's first independently designed, independently integrated manned submersible “Jiaolong” is also applied to titanium alloy, Jiaolong's working range covers 99.8% of the global marine area.

Existing Problems and Prospects of Titanium and Titanium Alloys

Although titanium and titanium alloys have made remarkable development, but the existing problems are also exposed, for the development of titanium alloys are also facing considerable challenges. It is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

(1) production.

Although China is a large country in the titanium industry, but the number of high-quality products in the production is not high, the special performance of the titanium product range is small, and secondly, China can not batch stable production of titanium strips and titanium extruded profiles, which restricts the development and utilization of titanium and titanium alloys in the aerospace and marine fields. To further increase the amount of titanium in the aero-engine to about 50% is still very difficult.

2) Performance

Due to the high chemical activity of titanium metal, easy to be contaminated by other elements, so titanium alloy processing and manufacturing process is very high, while processing of high-performance products need and comprehensive consideration of its mechanical, physical, chemical and technological properties, the existing titanium alloy at 600 ℃ or more, creep resistance and high temperature oxidation resistance of the sharp decline is to limit the expansion of titanium alloys to expand the application of the two major obstacles.

3) Cost

At present, countries are trying to reduce the application cost of titanium alloy, but also made a lot of achievements, but in terms of China's current situation, China's management and technical level has not yet reached the desired height, the domestic price of titanium alloy products in the international competitiveness of the poor, is not conducive to the further expansion of the use of titanium alloys.

At present, the main application areas of titanium alloys are still aerospace and other military industrial sectors, the development of new applications, such as in automobiles, trains, high-speed railroads, as well as daily life commonly used in the civilian sector of the application prospects are still very broad. In addition, replacing expensive alloying elements with lower-priced elements, and reducing the cost of titanium alloy parts through technological means are important topics in future titanium alloy research work. High-end applications of titanium alloy in the future to achieve low-cost manufacturing, titanium alloy will be used in various fields.

Author:

Mr. Richard

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