Common industrial titanium alloys mainly include ATI425 (Ti-4Al-2.5V-1.5Fe-0.25O), Timetal 62S (Ti-6Al-1.7Fe-0.1Si), GR12 (Ti-0.3Mo-0.8Ni), Timetal LCB (Ti-4.5Fe-6.8Mo-1.5Al), Ti-0.05Pd-0.3Co and other alloys. The target of Timetal 62S is TC4. This alloy uses cheap Fe element to replace the expensive V element in TC4, and can reduce its production cost by 15%~20% compared with TC4 under the condition that its strength and rigidity are basically unchanged; Timetal LCB targets Ti-10-2-3 (Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al), ATI425 targets GR38, and Ti-0.05Pd-0.3Co and GR12 targets Ti-0.2Pd. The above low-cost titanium alloys have been applied in practical production.
In China, the Northwest Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals has developed nearly β Type Ti12LC (Ti-4.5Al-Fe-6.8Mo) and near α Type Ti8LC (Ti-6Al-1Mo-1Fe), the performance of these two low-cost titanium alloys is similar to that of TC4 titanium alloy, but the production cost of small size bars can be reduced by about 30% compared with that of TC4 titanium alloy. Beijing Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals has developed a new metastable TC4 titanium alloy using Fe-Cr master alloy instead of expensive V element β Type titanium alloy Ti-3Al-3.7Cr-2.0Fe, its bar strength is equivalent to that of TC4 titanium alloy, and its plasticity is slightly better than that of TC4 titanium alloy.
In recent years, Australia has developed Ti-7Mn-Nb alloy with cheap Mn instead of expensive Nb for biomedical material Ti-Nb, and Japan has developed KS Ti-531C (Ti-4.5Al-2.5Cr-1.2Fe-0.1C) with Si, C, Fe and Cr instead of V, and has studied its application in aerospace field.
The main idea of these titanium alloy designs is to replace V, Mo, Nb, Ta and other high-priced alloy elements with cheap alloy elements such as Fe, Si, Al, Sn and so on, while ensuring that the alloy properties are basically unchanged, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing the cost of raw materials.