Friday, February 22, 2013

The Strength of Titanium


 You’ve seen titanium in a variety of industries, from jewelry to aerospace, but why is this metal taking off in popularity? Take a look at the properties that have made titanium a go to metal since its discovery and on through to today.

The second half of the 20th century was marked by an extensive development of production of titanium. At the time, this metal was marked as having a number of advantages, including wide availability and low cost, along with unique properties. The world was predicting that titanium would have a bright future and we were right.

Previous attempts have been made to apply the metal in other areas of metalized industries, such as: shipbuilding, engine construction and so on but those attempts failed. As it turned out, titanium has no simple chemical and physical properties. In 1940, William Kroll offered to produce titanium metal in the form of a sponge, by reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium, but this method was very expensive and complicated. Still, in developing this metal, Kroll incorporated titanium into a multi-billion industry staple.

The advantages of this material, in terms of the aluminum-magnesium alloy, are resistance, lightness and corrosion resistance plus the thermal durability of the metal. By weight, in contrast to the other traditionally used metals, titanium is about five times lighter. Because of this, titanium is widely used in the aerospace industry as well as other industries like medical, dental, aerospace, watchmaking, implantology and many others.

As the years pass, titanium has continued to become a much needed metal, especially in certain areas like healthcare and space exploration. The continued success of this metal along with the constant need for it will make titanium a force to be reckoned with for years to come.