The story of titanium

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-story-of-titanium

by weird_user • 3 years ago

350 181 3 years ago

Great overview: Titanium production technology essentially “willed into existence” by the US government (mainly the military branches) but now critical in health care for implants that embed with bone and that do not induce rejection.

danielodievich• 3 years ago

As a kid in my father's workshop we had several 4mm thick titanium plates, scavenged from some industrial stuff in USSR research facility nearby. I had a lot of fun getting my visiting friends tey to dent it with hammers. No matter how hard you struck it just didn't care. Only the oxidation patina would show some trace of impact. It was absolute magic to me. And so incredibly light!

cyberax2• 3 years ago

When the USSR collapsed, a lot of defense companies pivoted to civilian production. A factory in my town was producing titanium shovel heads.

They were awesome, unbelievably light, but very durable. They also made nice sparks when dragged across concrete pavement.

hef19898• 3 years ago

Damn, imagine having a titanium shovel! I want one!

myself248• 3 years ago

Decades ago, Sears sold magnesium stepladders. I've used one, and it's freakishly light, a 6-foot step ladder that you can walk around with balanced on one finger.

I've always wondered what a titanium one would be like.

saiya-jin• 3 years ago

Mountaineering ice screws. Its a dream for pro alpinists, since you have to drag every gram up there in thin air, so focus on weight saving is extreme, ie drilling holes into aluminum spoons before 8000m expeditions was normal in 70s-80s in eastern Europe block. Normal stainless steel ones are much heavier.

petertodd10• 3 years ago

Those must have been soft hammers. Titanium isn't magic. It's neither as hard, nor as strong, as steel. It's a lot lighter, which makes it a wonder material in certain applications that can take advantage of it's excellent strength-to-weight ratio. But if max hardness, or strength at a given size, is what you are after, without a weight constraint, steel wins.

saberience3• 3 years ago

I mean, I'm no materials scientist but one google tells me that Titanium is AS strong as steel but much less dense. I just browsed through the top 10 Google results and everyone states that titanium is roughly equal to steel in strength but with various other benefits. So your comment is definitely off-base somewhere, you make it seem like steel is much stronger, which clearly isn't the case.

robotomir• 3 years ago

I had a titanium Tissot watch and it scratched easier than steel watches.

Turing_Machine• 3 years ago

The article mentions that the Soviet Union had lots of titanium ore, and also that it was heavily used in the A-12/SR-71 family of aircraft.

I remember reading elsewhere that the CIA set up a bunch of front operations across the world to buy titanium (or maybe titanium ore) from the USSR without them finding out what it was being used for. They didn't want the "Ship to:" part of the order form reading "Lockheed Skunkworks, Burbank Califoria". Heh.

dendrite9• 3 years ago

There's an interesting story about trading Boeing aircraft design knowledge for Soviet titanium design knowledge during the cold war. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-titani...

pests• 3 years ago

Elsewhere would of course be the excellent "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" by Ben Rich.

Highly reccomended and goes into further engineering and design challenges of the RS-71 Blackbird and its titanium construction.

muz754• 3 years ago

Some hammers might not be that hard - you don’t want it to blow up in your face if you’re hitting a hardened steel tool.

psd1• 3 years ago

I do not like my hammer hard!

I do not like a face of shard!

I like to whale upon a tool

A shattered hammer is not cool!

latchkey• 3 years ago

This is the 5th time this story has been posted here. None of the other times received any comments and only a few points.

pmarreck2• 3 years ago

It's the first time I've seen it, and I'm glad I did because it's fascinating!

Also, this time seems to be going a bit differently... Perhaps timing is everything (see: bored people with their Thanksgiving families today...)

kylehotchkiss7• 3 years ago

It started with the titanium iPhone didn’t it? Maybe more people have begun to understand the benefits practically

fuzzfactor• 3 years ago

The timing of the submission is far more important than the nature of the article.

Time of day, time of week, other prominent distractions, etc have an increasingly outsized influence.

pmarreck2• 3 years ago

This is a really interesting story!

scrlk2• 3 years ago

I can't help but recall Steve Jobs introducing the PowerBook G4 Titanium:

"Titanium! It's made out of titanium! Like the spy planes! This is an incredible material, it's stronger than steel yet lighter than aluminium."

https://youtu.be/bNHkrnU77m0?t=92

Ingaz2• 3 years ago

I had IBM notebook with titanium case (before it became Lenovo)

kylehotchkiss7• 3 years ago

I could see a day when titanium laptops return. Apple has invested in the some of the best mass machining in the world. I wonder what it’d look like sandblasted like their laptops and with their new coatings.

scrlk2• 3 years ago

I miss the short "how it's made" videos that used to be in every single Apple production introduction (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQnr-kfuVdQ).

There was a blog called "Atomic Delights" that would explain the manufacturing processes featured in the videos. Found it super interesting, especially considering the challenge of shipping products at Apple level volumes.

A MBP with the natural titanium finish as seen in the iPhone 15 Pro would be fantastic.

askvictor• 3 years ago

Wasn't one of the major problems that Titanium doesn't play well with Wifi? The TiBook predated built-in wifi, and I thought one of the reason to shift to Aluminum was wifi performance.

thaumasiotes3• 3 years ago

I could see a day when titanium laptops return.

I don't get it. I was issued a metal macbook once. I had to buy a plastic case for it, because the bare metal scratched my fingernails.

Why would we want a hard metal case instead of a soft plastic one?

303uru3• 3 years ago

Love titanium, something so cool about it. It’s like steel with no downsides. I’ve got 5 ti bikes and a few ti watches, one of my favorite pieces though is my snow peak double wall titanium mug.

JonChesterfield• 3 years ago

What makes the mug particularly good? Always interested in something to improve coffee and recently broke my favourite one.

psb217• 3 years ago

I've got a Ti double-walled mug from Snow Peak that I use a lot around the house. The big strengths are light weight, near indestructability, and a cool Ti functional aesthetic. It's double-walled and holds heat well, but I prefer the "mouth feel" of ceramic or glass when drinking coffee, so I don't use it much for coffee.

petertodd10• 3 years ago

I've got one myself. For only a bit more weight (~70g) than single-walled aluminum mug (~60g), Snow Peak can put two walls, making the mug insulated.

Though it's heavier than an insulated plastic mug, and _way_ more expensive.

303uru3• 3 years ago

It’s super light, about the same weight as single wall stainless cup. The mouthfeel is nice, hot coffee doesn’t make the titanium feel as hot as steel gets and the feel is more similar to ceramic than stainless steel. It cleans up really nice and truly doesn’t stain. I even used a dc transformer to do some custom anodizing on mine and it looks really cool.

carabiner• 3 years ago

Lightweight for camping. I have a titanium flask that was engraved by a guy on YouTube.

amluto4• 3 years ago

Tea, especially green tea, in a titanium mug is, in my experience, utterly gross.

Maybe anodized titanium would work better? I don’t know what the chemistry behind the problem is, but even stainless steel kills green tea after a while.

throwaway920102• 3 years ago

Titanium is not good for flavor, its good for strength to weight ratio for people concerned with weight (think EDC, ultralight, etc)

kylehotchkiss7• 3 years ago

Do your bikes have carbon forks or TI? when I looked at TI bikes for fun in the past, the carbon forks surprised me, seemed like that should have been titanium too. How has your mug held up? Has it been compatibly durable compared to steel vacuum mugs? Snow peak makes great products but leans more lightweight than durable from my experience with their dishware

stevenwoo3• 3 years ago

Titanium needs to be in a bigger tube with thinner walls to take advantage of the properties compared to steel - the very first titanium bicycles used the available surplus tubing from defense/aeronautics industry that was close to steel bicycle tubing size and were notably not great until they used slightly bigger tubing and better titanium alloys. Forks have a couple of design features that make it hard to work with titanium tubing, the height from bottom of headtube to where the top of the tire is has to have extra space for clearance or a tiny object or some mud will clog up the fork pretty quickly or cause an immediate stop in front wheel rotation, and that part of the fork has to be extremely stiff. Some of of the first carbon forks had a titanium steerer tube for a minimal weight saving and to make it easier to work with the stem attachment system. Several equipment changes to this part of the bicycle have come about in the last couple of decades to accommodate carbon fiber more easily. The market for titanium was just too niche by comparison to make those changes necessary.

303uru3• 3 years ago

One does actually (https://bearclawbicycleco.com/titanium-gravel-fork/). Mug looks practically brand new several years later.

opan• 3 years ago

Snow Peak's titanium spork is awesome as well. I got two and use one for my regular meals and the other I EDC in a cargo pocket for use away from home.

mkii2• 3 years ago

Finally a titanium stan thread! Due to skin allergies/sensitivities, the only material I can wear for watches seems to be titanium. Luckily the market for them are mostly all stylish and functional. And they're so light! It's like I'm wearing another piece of clothing on my wrist that's cold and tells me the time.

megraf• 3 years ago

Resting next to me is a titanium ring, it is extremely light, resistant to ambient temp change, and is usually cool to the touch. It cost $15 or so. It wears in a really beautiful way, aging like it's enjoying itself.

On my finger is a tungsten carbide ring, it's extremely dense (that of gold, slightly heavier than uranium), and has a lot of interesting properties. It's warmed quickly by my fingers, and rings the most beautiful tone when I strike it with some bar stock of AI.

Wolfram has been a very nice metal in my life, I wish it was more common, and would love to try to add some knurling to it.

kylehotchkiss7• 3 years ago

I wear a titanium ring too and keep my real one safely locked away. It’s an incredible metal that I proudly wear around. Mine cost about the same.

I also have a titanium pocketknife (James Brand), carabiner, keyrings, pens, camera (fujifilm makes a few), and some beloved snow peak dishes. And the silly titanium iPhone. It’s such a great metal to make things to carry with.

efitz• 3 years ago

It’s not that great for blades as it doesn’t retain its edge as well as steel and is harder to sharpen.

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh• 3 years ago

Do you mind sharing where you got the titanium keyrings and carabiners?

I've been searching forever for decent keyrings. There's a few carabiners (though the titanium ones are hard to find there too, and usually covered in obnoxious branding). But keyrings especially seem to be an under-served market. There's either (1) the usual mass-produced, flimsy, cheap garbage, or (2) something tougher and more expensive, but covered in branding.

I've settled with (2) for now (though it's not even titanium), but it'd be nice to not have to look at a giant billboard every time I pull out my keys.

drcongo2• 3 years ago

I have a nickel allergy so titanium is my first port of call for jewellery, though my wedding ring is zirconium and some of my old, pre-allergy stuff is now plated with rhodium.

hypercube33• 3 years ago

niobium is a happy metal for nickel allergies. feels like tanium and doesn't trigger allergies.

Source - my wife breaks out from nickel in jean rivets but niobium is good enough for piercings

gnarcoregrizz• 3 years ago

I have one too. It’s not my favorite to wear because it has zero heft. It’s unsubstantial and has a strange plasticky somewhat sticky feel. I plan on replacing it with gold. I can’t complain about the price though - they came in a box of 3.

Ingaz2• 3 years ago

Great article! Sad it's so USA-centric. It would be great to read "Soviet part" of titanium

kylehotchkiss7• 3 years ago

The real story now is how China centric it is - a lot of the worlds machining capabilities for it are still only there.

ratsmack• 3 years ago

A little info in the subject.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/28152/when-and-h...

MeImCounting6• 3 years ago

I collect nice pocket knives. Many nice pocket knives are made from titanium and other fancy materials like carbon fiber. I love titanium above all other metals for its unique properties in being anodized and finished in a large variety of beautiful ways. If you are ever interested in seeing some truly unique and beautiful titanium finishes check out "Knife Modders" on instagram. Combinations of coatings/anodizing/laser etching can produce some truly beautiful pieces.

stevefolta• 3 years ago

How can titanium be both a "streetwalker" and "incredibly corrosion-resistant"?

kragen5• 3 years ago

same as aluminum, it immediately forms a hard and adherent oxide layer upon exposure to air or especially water

hdivider3• 3 years ago

Huge fan of Titanium.

If only we could find a cheap way to get the metal out of titanium dioxide. Like a Haber process-level breakthrough.

Then we could start replacing steel with titanium in many applications. Think entire freight trains, cargo ships, containers, cars, trucks, tractors -- all that heavy steel replaced by titanium alloys.

Enormous quantities of fuel and energy saved by lower density and higher strength. In many applications, it would likely make stainless steel obsolete.

Trillions of dollars of value may be locked up in such a breakthrough.

pocketstar• 3 years ago

Fatigue is why we use steel for everything, no other alloys have the practical strength and infinite life.

petertodd10• 3 years ago

Like steel, titanium alloys have a distinct non-zero fatigue limit, and thus can be engineered to have infinite fatigue lives. Though the exact details differ and steel or titanium can be better depending on exactly what the conditions are.

softfalcon• 3 years ago

You are correct in that steel is harder and stiffer than titanium. Steel is also more re-usable, smelt-able than titanium.

However, when it comes to fatigue (which I assume, you are referring to fracture strain) titanium has a significant edge. The fracture strain for steel is roughly 15%, but for titanium alloys, it often reaches and exceeds 50%.

I don't say this to contradict you, but to point out that as with most things in life, "it depends".

Source: https://www.ulbrich.com/blog/titanium-versus-steel-a-battle-....

pasabagi2• 3 years ago

I think it could be one of those 'grass-is-greener' scenarios. Steel is really nice to work with. It's strong and elastic and you can do all sorts of things to alter its properties, like even in a home shop.

Titanium always looks really hard to work with, just from the few times I've seen youtube types get some into their lathe chucks.

Would the added (in some ways just different) performance make up the difference? No idea. I mean, would people use so much aluminium if it wasn't straightforward to extrude it into interesting shapes? I don't think I would.

The straight characteristics of a material are one thing: what you can actually do with it are another.

kragen5• 3 years ago

maybe if the blast furnace hadn't been invented nearly a thousand years ago we wouldn't be so familiar with the techniques that work well on steel

LargoLasskhyfv• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_alloys

Looks like alloys are much more mallable, while losing almost none of the qualities of pure titanium.

Also: Go nukkular, high-temperature to be specific.

hdivider3• 3 years ago

That's why I said titanium alloys specifically. With such a large-scale industrial transformation, definitely many alloys would be explored, to fit the needs of new industries. We don't use pure iron for any serious applications either.

hgomersall• 3 years ago

Metalysis have made claims like this: https://metalysis.com/

Based on this tech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFC_Cambridge_process

Still waiting for my titanium girders though...

hdivider3• 3 years ago

This is cool. Thanks!

In my mind, this is what real technology entrepreneurship looks like. As opposed to the latest crypto or social media thing.

ClumsyPilot3• 3 years ago

Then we could start replacing steel with titanium in many applications.

The world's production of stainless steel is growing almost exponentially and we are replacing many applications or ordinary steel with stainless. Every year millions of tons of steel are lost to rust.

Its a gigsntic shift noone is noticing

painted-now• 3 years ago

I owned a carbon road bike - which unfortunately I wrecked due to a problem with my chain. I then bought a used titanium bike, and I have peace of mind since then. It might be just a psychological effect - but it just feels good to have a bike frame that's extremely difficult to destroy.

vermooten• 3 years ago

Come back, zinc! Come back!

A_D_E_P_T3• 3 years ago

Almost everything about the article is wrong, oversimplified, or misleading.

Take this paragraph, for instance:

But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature. One engineer described titanium as a “streetwalker," because it will pick up anything and everything. While copper has been used by civilization since 7000 BC, and iron since around 3000 BC, titanium wasn’t discovered until the late 1700s, and wasn’t produced in metallic form until the late 19th century.

As this is basically a bunch of bullet points in paragraph form, it'll be easier to handle if we break it down:

But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment).

The same also applies to aluminum, magnesium, nickel, etc.

Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature.

The same also applies to aluminum, magnesium, and even iron. (I mean, there's some meteoric iron, but it's very rare.) Pure metals are very rare in nature. What distinguishes iron and copper from aluminum and titanium is the energy required to split the oxide into metal.

One engineer described titanium as a “streetwalker," because it will pick up anything and everything.

Titanium is not more reactive than aluminum and it's far less reactive than magnesium. In fact, it's slightly less reactive than iron overall. (i.e., more chemically stable under normal conditions and in contact with common acids.)

While copper has been used by civilization since 7000 BC, and iron since around 3000 BC, titanium wasn’t discovered until the late 1700s, and wasn’t produced in metallic form until the late 19th century.

This has everything to do with the temperature required to separate the metal from the oxygen atoms binding it, and nothing to do with anything else. What's more, it applies even more strongly to aluminum, which was discovered in 1825 -- three decades after the discovery of titanium. (1791.) So there's absolutely nothing unique about titanium in this regard.

I could go on. But basically this is an "I hecking love science" article that barely scratches the surface of the subject -- and still manages to be subtly misleading.

kragen5• 3 years ago

The same also applies to aluminum, magnesium, nickel, etc.

the oxides of aluminum, magnesium, and nickel were not in use as paint pigments

What distinguishes iron and copper from aluminum and titanium is the energy required to split the oxide into metal. (...) Titanium is not more reactive than aluminum

the particularly relevant issue here, as i understand it, is that titanium has a stable carbide, which prevents you from reducing it carbothermically; you end up with titanium carbide instead of titanium metal. aluminum's carbide is unstable even in water, while iron's carbide is mechanically strong but still easy to reduce to iron with air. copper's carbide is poorly characterized and even more unstable, and it even occurs native

there are other things that titanium reacts more strongly with than aluminum does. titanium tetrachloride, for example, which is mentioned in the article, isn't a mere salt like normal chlorides; it's a volatile fuming liquid, because titanium forms covalent bonds with the chlorine like a motherfucking nonmetal. you can argue about whether this makes it more or less reactive than aluminum in this context; the reaction produces more energy per metal atom but less energy per chlorine atom

this kind of dirty trick is why titanium wasn't isolated until decades after the creation of metallic calcium, sodium, potassium, aluminum, and even the isolation of some of the rare earths

so i think the characterization in the article is fair

A_D_E_P_T3• 3 years ago

the oxides of aluminum, magnesium, and nickel were not in use as paint pigments

Aluminum oxides were used as a pigment, predominantly in blue (cobalt aluminum oxide) but also in white.

In any case, the dominant white dyes of the Early Modern period -- and prior periods -- were lead based. The presence of TiO2-based pigments is actually one good way to identify a modern forgery.

the particularly relevant issue here, as i understand it, is that titanium has a stable carbide

This turned out to be solvable via calciothermic or magnesiothermic reduction -- which is now effectively the go-to method for just about everything that can't be reduced with carbon. All titanium dioxide reduction processes demand quite a lot of energy, though; more than aluminum and far more than iron.

cphajduk• 3 years ago

The article may be an oversimplification, but your comment is an equal oversimplification. There are many environmental conditions that need to be assumed when comparing reactivity.

For instance, if you have pure Titanium, pure Magnesium, pure aluminum in a vacuum at room temperature and proceed to introduce oxygen, you get the following reactions (simplified elemental chemical reactions, the Enthalpy of formation is what is important here):

Ti + O2 -> TiO2 (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -945kJ/mol)

Mg + O -> MgO (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -601kJ/mol)

4Al + 3O2 -> 2 Al2O3 (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -1675kJ/mol)

As a result, aluminum is most reactive, followed by titanium, then magnesium.

This is the reason why aluminum is used in solid rocket motors and various other explosive devices.

Under different conditions, these numbers may change: for instance a reaction with water instead of air may yield different enthalpies. At quick glance in water, titanium is actually least reactive when compared to aluminum and magnesium.

A_D_E_P_T3• 3 years ago

You can make a general benchmark assumption, e.g. in the Reactivity Series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactivity_series

So from a high enough vantage point, Ti is very slightly less reactive than Al, less reactive than Mg, and not too far from Fe. A far cry from being "a streetwalker" of a metal.

phenol• 3 years ago

to make a fair comparison here, you need to normalize per mole of metal. these enthalpies of formation are reported per mole of oxide, but there's twice as much Al per mole of Al2O3 than Ti in TiO2.

euroderf• 3 years ago

Great discussion here. I can pretty much see why people would make a career of metals engineering.

dave333• 3 years ago

There is evidence titanium may be the cause of the rare disease yellow nail syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_nail_syndrome

study ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3176400/

Animats• 3 years ago

Machining titanium is possible, but remains difficult. It's slow and you go through a lot of cutters.

Now this is just showing off.[1] Daishin and Open Mind started with a 60 kilogram cylinder of titanium and milled a very detailed crown out of it. 300 hours of CNC machining time on a very good 5-axis mill. Most of the metal ends up as scrap.

The software for this is called HyperMill. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqv5SjC4s6w

Vicinity9635• 3 years ago

I have a titanium chainmail shirt: https://www.etsy.com/listing/505806057/titanium-chainmaille-... (me in 2nd pic)

It weighs just 6.6 lbs. (the page says 6.5 but I had to have him add a bit cause I got too swole in the lats a couple of years ago.)

It's fun to have someone try it on then watch them struggle as they can't figure out how to get it off lol

If you bend over and stick your arms down it basically slide off on its own.

What's really interesting is the ringing sound it makes when you play with it or move around wearing it, it's a noticibly higher pitch than steel is.

I also have a necklace/spacepen lanyard, wallet chain, and coif made of titanium by Bim also. My keyrings and bottle opener are also titanium. It's such a cool metal. Kind of a pity it makes a very poor knife blade. Speaking of: I also replaced the screws and hinges of my bespoke Benchmade knife with titanium ones, because why not?

A bit obsessed as you can tell.

tl;dr I have a mithril shirt

redman25• 3 years ago

Curious how durable a Ti shirt would be. Could it save you walking down a dark alley at night?

NickNameNick• 3 years ago

Looks like they're just butted rings, so you're relying on the rididity of each ring to resist opening up.

Welded or rivited rings would be much more robust. Especially vs piercing weapons, like arrows or fighting knives.

But much more expensive.

AngryData• 3 years ago

Titanium is a wonderful material but I think many people are way more idealistic about how great it is than it is in reality. In nearly every category other than weight constraints steel still wins out and is so much easier to work with.

rendaw• 3 years ago

After the war, the Bureau’s work on titanium accelerated. By 1947 it had successfully scaled up Kroll’s process

The article so far can be summarized as "people played around with titanium, but had no idea what to use it for" so why is the bureau suddenly trying to scale up production, or even mass producing it in the first place? It wasn't until 1948 that they identified engineering applications.

garbanzoPDX• 3 years ago

it formed the literal backbone of the most advanced aerospace technology on the planet.

I'm going to be pedantic here, but I feel like it needs to be said: no, it was not the "literal" backbone aerospace technology. It was the "figurative" backbone. There, I said it.

messe• 3 years ago

It does not need to be said.

The use of literally as an intensifier goes back centuries, and is well-accepted. Move on.

Why choose this hill to die on when there are far more interesting things to discuss?

dreamcompiler4• 3 years ago

Since the A-12 was 93% titanium, it's virtually certain that its skeletal frame was made of the metal. The word "literal" applies.

SV_BubbleTime4• 3 years ago

Heads up… except for mine almost none of the comments here mention Grade 5 (6AL4V).

This thread is a ton of people talking about things they think they understand but haven’t actually directly worked with. Just making things up or repeating things they heard once.

Anyone who actually uses it will know Grade 2, 5, 12, 23 etc.

I don’t mind particularly, there are some clearly educated people talking about chemistry, but it is important to note how many people here are talking out their asses.

The top current comment is about being unable to dent 4mm Ti plate with hammers - complete BS.

mingabunga• 3 years ago

Maybe you can educate us then..

zardo• 3 years ago

The top current comment is about being unable to dent 4mm Ti plate with hammers - complete BS.

It is about children with hammers.

the-mitr• 3 years ago

Of possible interest

Tales About Metals

https://archive.org/details/VenetskyTalesAboutMetals

On Rare and Scattered Metals

https://archive.org/details/OnRareAndScatteredMetalsTalesAbo...

peter_d_sherman• 3 years ago

Great article!

"The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100."
"Titanium was nearly as strong as stainless steel, but weighed 40% less."

Consider Steel I-Beams, used in construction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-beam

Observation: If the workability difficulties of Titanium could be solved, at scale -- then not Steel, but Titanium I-Beams -- could be produced, en masse...

If this could be done cheaply enough, then, in the future, Titanium I-Beams -- produced in the U.S.A. -- could retake the worldwide market for construction I-Beams that was historically lost when other countries started producing Steel I-Beams cheaper than the U.S. did...

Anyway, an excellent article!

rkagerer• 3 years ago

Great article, though I'm surprised they didn't mention how the CIA clandestinely purchased much of the titanium for the SR-71 Blackboard (and it's predecessor) from Russia through front companies.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/crazy-story-how-russi...

The story of titanium

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