Applications Of Titanium
In order to reduce the burden caused by the high cost of titanium application, on the one hand, the residual titanium treatment technology has been developed, on the other hand, the near net forming, superplastic forming, precision casting and powder metallurgy, and the hot isostatic pressure and diffusion connection are developed. For example, the powder metallurgy products processed by powder making, forming, sintering or hot isostatic pressure consolidation are nearly net forming parts, with material utilization rate up to 80%, which not only reduces material consumption, but also reduces the cutting quantity. For example, the application of large thin-walled precision casting technology in titanium alloy makes the properties of titanium castings close to that of titanium forgings, and the cost is reduced by about 50%.
The main consumption fields of titanium and titanium alloy are aviation industry first. In the 1980s, titanium used in the American aviation industry accounted for 74.8% of the total titanium consumption. Russia, Britain and other titanium materials were mainly used in aviation industry, and 90% of titanium in Japan were used in civil industry. In recent years, titanium has been widely used in non aerospace industry, and aerospace still occupies the "main position". Since 1952 titanium was used as engine cabin and fire wall on Douglas dc-7, many aircraft have been made of titanium alloy. Titanium parts play a key role in Boeing 757, supersonic SR-71 blackbird, F-22 jet, space satellites and missiles. For example, the fan disk and engine blade in the aircraft are made of titanium castings and forgings.
The second application field of titanium is related to the use of its corrosion resistance. The most important amount is the electrode material used for chlor alkali production. The service life of titanium anode is 10 times of that of graphite anode, which makes the capacity increase nearly 1 times and the power saving is 15%. The annual output of caustic soda is 10000 tons, and about 5 tons of titanium is required.
Titanium has been a brilliant one in the shipbuilding of the navigation industry. The titanium consumption of each of the 6-7 3000 ton nuclear submarines manufactured by the former Soviet Union is 560 tons (the titanium consumption of alpha class submarines is more than 908 tons). In recent years, titanium has shown great power in the exploration and development of offshore oil and gas. Only in 1997-1999, Europe invested 15billion dollars in North Sea oil and gas development, which was used to construct 21 suspended production ships and 64 platforms. The life safety system of a new platform needs 50-500 tons of titanium, wedge-shaped stress joints need 50-100 tons of titanium, retractable elevators need 400-1200 tons of titanium, and fixed lifters need 1400-4200 tons of titanium.
In the energy industry, titanium is known as the condenser and heat exchanger of power generation device, such as Taizhou Power Plant, Shanghai Jinshan thermal power plant and Zhenhai Power Plant, all of which have titanium tube condenser, with titanium consumption of about 700 tons. All titanium condensers are used in Qinshan and Dayawan Nuclear power plants. In recent years, titanium has also been widely used in geothermal development of geothermal wells, which fully shows its own corrosion resistance. In the high temperature corrosive environment of geothermal brine, other materials have to be replaced by titanium because of their short life. The advantage of titanium is that it can improve the productivity of heat production and the life of geothermal wells. Since 1990s, the United States started to hit a geothermal well with temperature of up to 300 ℃ in Salton Sea area, Southern California, until 227 tons of hot rolled seamless pipe of ti-6al-4v-0.1ru alloy has been used. It is estimated that the amount of titanium used in geothermal development around the world will reach 2400 tons in the next ten years. If titanium is used in Yangbajing power station in Tibet, its appearance will be greatly improved.
The main alloys of offshore oil and gas drilling and geothermal development are ti-6al-4veli, Ti-3Al-2.5V, ti-6al-4v-0.1ru, ti-3al-2.5v-0.1ru and molybdenum containing ti-38644 (ti-3al-8v-6cr-4zr-4mo). The marine fasteners are made of ti-5111 (ti-5al-1sn-1zr-1v-0.8mo) alloy. In order to meet the needs of marine engineering, we have developed alloys such as Ti75, Ti31 and ti631.
According to statistics, the titanium consumption of a 200000 kW thermal power plant is 90 tons, and that of a nuclear power station is 80-100 tons. It can be seen that the amount of titanium used in energy and corrosion can not be ignored.
Golf, biomaterials and automobile manufacturing are three promising new applications of titanium.
In the field of sports and leisure, the increase of golf equipment consumption is quite dramatic. Titanium has not entered this field in 1993, and the amount of titanium used in 1997 increased to 4000 tons. The reason is that titanium is used as the ball club with high strength, light texture, and an average increase of 20-30 yards (1 yard = 0.9144 meters) or 15% of the hitting distance. The appearance of titanium clubs added 448 new stadiums in 1998 in the United States. The number of players is 25million (close to half of the world). In 1994, only 500 clubs were sold, up to 190000 in 1995, and 1.72 million in 1997. Titanium has a great place in leisure sports, such as ski, sledge, ice axe, ice claw and other climbing facilities.
Titanium has excellent biocompatibility, low expansion coefficient, high durability and non magnetism, and is an excellent bone support material. The weight of the implanted hip joint is about half of stainless steel, and the bone tissue can be directly adhered to titanium implant when growing. Titanium alloy is also used in knee joint and denture reconstruction. According to statistics, the amount of titanium used in medical planting is between 600-1000 tons every year. In addition to ti-6al-4veli (ultra-low clearance oxygen), titanium alloys such as aluminum free (free from toxicity to kidney and lung) were developed, such as titanium alloy (ti-2.75nb-15.2mo-0.34fe-0.18si-0.250), and total 21s (ti-2.9nb-14-9mo-0.09fe-2.9al-0.22si-0.140), Ti-6Al-7Nb.
The production of low cost titanium and the development of titanium powder processing technology have been possible to extend the application of titanium to the automotive industry. Titanium made springs have begun to be on Formula One racing, racing motorcycles and the most advanced Ferrari cars
