For us, metal is a very familiar substance. The author has a wide range of uses in his daily life, and we humans have a long history of using metal. As early as 3-4000 years ago, we ancient people began to use iron products as tools.

With the development of society, smelting technology is also slowly developing. There are more and more types of metal products, and their performance is getting better and better. The various alloys we use in modern times generally have the characteristics of high hardness, light weight, and strong corrosion resistance, which have played a great role in the modernization of society. Among so many medium alloys, there is an alloy that has excellent performance and is widely used, that is, titanium alloy.

Titanium is very abundant on earth, accounting for about 0.42% of the total weight in the earth's crust, which is 16 times the total amount of copper, nickel, lead, and zinc. Although it has a large storage capacity, it was rarely used in the past, mainly due to the difficulty of mining, processing, and cost. In the 18th century, humans had discovered the existence of titanium, and it only started to develop until the 1950s and 1960s. Of course, the development of titanium alloys at that time was mainly to meet the performance needs of advanced fighters, submarines and other equipment at the time. We now Titanium alloys can be used because they are stained with light. Let ’s take a look at some facts about titanium alloys together!

First, the smelting of titanium alloys really started in the last century

As mentioned earlier, although titanium is widely present on earth, it is difficult to extract and utilize. Back in 1791, an amateur British mineralogist and church priest, William Gregor, dug out some curious black sandy beaches in a stream near Cornwall. Then in 1795, the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaprous also discovered this strange oxide, which was named "titanium oxide". Although it was discovered as early as the end of the 18th century, it was not until 1910 that pure titanium was separated from the oxides. In other words, it took more than a hundred years from discovery to application, and it was not easy to mine and use, but how difficult it was for us.

Second, it is the lightest and strongest metal on the planet, and its rapid development is mainly due to the development of military industry.

As mentioned earlier, titanium alloys have excellent performance and were mainly used in the military industry at the beginning of development. The military industry has very high requirements for materials because the operating environment of fighters and other equipment is very harsh.

Pure titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal on the planet. It is as strong as steel but 45% lighter. At present, titanium alloy products are mainly used in aircraft engines, aircraft fuselages, and rockets. Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, contains 70 tons of titanium and is mainly used for engines. In submarines, it is also very versatile. For example, Russia's famous "Typhoon" class nuclear submarine uses a large number of titanium alloys. Of course, although the use of titanium alloy can reduce the weight of the body, the cost is relatively high.

Third, titanium will not corrode

In daily life, we often see that many metal products will rust, that is, these metal products are exposed to the air and are the result of oxidation reactions with oxygen. Therefore, in order to alleviate the problem of rust and oxidation of metal products, we usually apply a layer of rust inhibitor to reduce the area where they are in contact with oxygen, so as to alleviate the problem of rust.

For titanium products, this problem does not occur, and we do not need to apply a separate layer of rust inhibitor to it. Because the surface of titanium is covered with a thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2), it can actually protect the underlying titanium from any type of corrosion, including electrochemical, microbiological, and stress corrosion.

Because of this characteristic, titanium alloy products can work well in a variety of highly corrosive environments, just like the submarines mentioned above, because ships such as submarines are immersed in seawater all year round, and seawater is rich in various ions. Corrosion is relatively strong, general metal products will soon be corroded, and titanium alloys do not have to worry about this problem.

Fourth, titanium can be used for our body parts

The magic titanium products are not only a magic weapon to restrain corrosion, but also useful to our body. Titanium is "biological", which means that it can fuse human tissues and bones well. In fact, titanium is also present in our human body. The titanium content in a normal human body is not more than 15 mg per 70 kg of body weight.

This titanium product is widely used in the manufacture of medical devices and can be used to make various man-made joints (such as knee joints, shoulder joints, flank joints, etc.). These artificial titanium products are lightweight and have the same elasticity as human bones, which can be maintained Normal human activities.

Of course, as a magical product, it has a wide range of uses and many characteristics, far more than those mentioned in this article, the rest of the situation, this article will not list them one by one. If you have any understanding of titanium alloys, Welcome to leave a message and share with everyone in the comment area. Of course, everyone is welcome to add attention, the next issue is more exciting! thanks for your support!