Application of titanium in high-end manufacturing
February 18, 2022
Titanium is a low-key and meaningful variety in the metal family. With the development of China's high-end manufacturing industry, titanium metal is increasingly widely used. Titanium metal has the characteristics of light weight, high strength, high melting point, small specific gravity, high specific strength, good wear resistance, good toughness, corrosion resistance, low thermal conductivity, high and low temperature resistance, low stress under the condition of rapid cooling and heat.
Although titanium has a series of good qualities, but its commercial use is relatively late, until the 1950s began to be recognized. Titanium and iron, aluminum, vanadium or molybdenum and other elements to create high strength light alloy, used in aviation, aerospace, military and other high-tech fields. With the continuous promotion of titanium to chemical industry, petroleum, electric power, seawater desalination, construction, agricultural food, medicine, daily necessities and other industries, titanium metal is increasingly valued by people, known as the "third metal", "space metal", "ocean metal" and "universal metal". It is also called "modern metal" and "strategic metal" because it is an indispensable strategic material to improve the level of national defense equipment.
From the global application distribution of titanium materials, China's titanium materials in aerospace about 20% of the application ratio is still low, the future application of titanium materials in aerospace will become the main application direction of titanium, especially high-end titanium materials, and high-end titanium materials to enterprises bring higher added value.
From the perspective of industry chain, China is one of the few countries in the world with a complete titanium industry from ore treatment to titanium material production. Titanium industry is the basis of petroleum, chemical, aerospace and other industries. On the whole, China's titanium industry chain is in a structural imbalance between high and low end supply and demand. China is a large country in titanium resource reserves, but high purity titanium concentrate still needs to rely on imports; China's production of titanium sponge has ranked first in the world, the overall supply of titanium sponge is far greater than the demand, but the capacity of aerospace grade high-end titanium sponge is still insufficient. At present, the main added value in the titanium industry chain is in the middle and downstream titanium material processing and application. In the field of titanium material processing, China's high-end titanium material production capacity is relatively short, titanium used for civil aircraft almost all from imports. In the intensive delivery period of comAC C919 superimposed Y-20 large transport aircraft in 2022, the demand for high-end titanium materials will be significantly increased. Enterprises that make major breakthroughs in titanium processing technology will have priority in sharing the dividends of China's aerospace development.
