Due to various characteristics of titanium alloys, titanium alloys have a broad application prospect in the field of new materials. However, with the different types of titanium alloys, the characteristics of titanium alloys are also different. They are characterized by low density, high specific strength, low thermal conductivity, high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance and corrosion resistance. The two most important characteristics are high specific strength and good corrosion resistance.
These two outstanding characteristics determine that titanium alloys have a very wide range of applications in the sea, land, air and outer space, including aerospace, conventional weapons, naval vessels and marine engineering, nuclear power and thermal power generation, chemical and petrochemical, metallurgy, construction, transportation, sports equipment and daily necessities. Spacecraft mainly use the high specific strength, corrosion resistance and low temperature resistance of titanium alloy to manufacture various pressure vessels, fuel tanks, fasteners, instrument straps, frames and rocket shells. Titanium alloy plate weldments are also used in artificial earth satellites, lunar modules, manned spacecraft and space shuttles.
The preparation of titanium alloy generally involves three steps: heat treatment, cutting, deoxidation and acid cleaning to produce preliminary titanium alloy products, while the melting of titanium alloy to the final product generally involves three steps: sponge titanium preparation, titanium material preparation and titanium material application. The preparation technology of sponge titanium and titanium material is complex and difficult, which is the difficulty and key link of titanium manufacturing. To some extent, sponge titanium and titanium material directly determine the quality of titanium alloy products. From the perspective of the whole industrial chain, the core barrier of titanium alloy is not the upstream resources and the midstream smelting, but the processing of titanium materials. The research and development and manufacturing process of high-end titanium materials are often concentrated in the hands of leading enterprises.
At present, vacuum white loss arc melting (VAR) technology is mainly used in the processing of high-end titanium materials. The vacuum white consumption arc melting technology is simply that in the vacuum or inert gas environment, the consumable electrode produced by the induction furnace is heated and melted by the controllable AC arc. This technology has very strict requirements for heat treatment technology and cutting process. At present, only the United States, Russia, Japan and China have complete high-end titanium processing technology.