History of Titanium Industry
Foreign development history
In 1940, Luxembourg scientist W.J. Kroll produced pure titanium by reducing TiCl4 with magnesium. From then on, magnesium reduction method (also known as Kroll method) and sodium reduction method (also known as Hunt method) became the industrial method of producing titanium sponge. The United States in 1948 with the magnesium reduction method to produce 2 tons of titanium sponge, since the beginning of the industrial production of titanium.
In 1947, people only began to smelt titanium in the factory. In that year, the output was only 2 tons. 1955, the output surged to 20,000 tons. 1972, the annual output reached 200,000 tons. Titanium's yield strength is higher than that of steel, while its weight is almost half of that of steel in the same volume. Although titanium is slightly heavier than aluminum, its yield strength is two times greater than that of aluminum. Titanium's specific strength is higher than aluminum and steel, specific modulus is very close to aluminum and steel. In the universe rocket and missile, a large number of titanium instead of steel. Because titanium is very strong, can withstand high pressure, so people began to use titanium to manufacture submarines - titanium submarines. This kind of submarine can navigate in the deep sea as deep as 4500 meters.
Domestic development history
China's titanium industry has gone through three stages of development：
- The pioneering period in the 1950s
- The construction period in the 60s and 70s
- Initial development in the 80s and 90s
1954
China's titanium industry started in the 1950's. In 1954, Beijing Nonferrous Metals Research Institute began to carry out research on titanium sponge preparation process; in 1956, China listed titanium as a strategic metal in the 12-year development plan; in 1958, titanium sponge industrial test was realized in Fushun Aluminum Plant, and China's first titanium sponge production workshop was set up, while China's first titanium sheet and strip production pilot plant was set up in Shenyang Nonferrous Metals Processing Plant.
1970
In the 1960s and 1970s, under the unified planning of China, more than 10 titanium sponge production units represented by Zunyi Titanium Factory were built successively; in 1967, China's first titanium pipe and bar processing material production test workshop and the second titanium sheet and strip production test workshop were established in Luoyang Copper Processing Factory, and the pilot production of titanium material for the first nuclear submarine, the first guided-missile destroyer and the aviation was mainly undertaken at that time. At the same time, China has become the fourth country with a complete titanium industry system after the United States, the former Soviet Union and Japan.
1980
Around 1980, China's production of titanium sponge reached 2,800 tons, however, due to the lack of understanding of titanium by most people at that time, the high price of titanium materials also limited the application of titanium, titanium processing material production of only about 200 tons, China's titanium industry was in a difficult situation. Under such circumstances, the inter-ministerial National Titanium Application Promotion Leading Group was established in July 1982, specializing in coordinating the development of the titanium industry, which contributed to the rapid and stable development of China's titanium industry from the 1980s to the early 1990s, when the production and sales of titanium sponge and titanium processed materials were both booming.
2011
In 2011, the first year of China's 12th Five-Year Plan, China's titanium sponge and titanium processed material production continued to grow at an inertial pace. According to the statistics of Titanium, Zirconium, Hafnium and Zirconium Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNMIA), the total output of 14 domestic titanium sponge producers in 2011 amounted to 64,952t, which is 12.4% higher than the same period of last year. According to the statistics of 30 enterprises, China produced a total of 50,962t of titanium processed material in 2011, an increase of 33.0% year-on-year.
2014
In September 2014, China's first furnace "electronic grade low-oxygen ultra-high purity titanium" has been successfully developed and put into production in Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province, breaking China's foreign monopoly. China in the field of ultra-high purity titanium often have to look at the United States and Japan's "face". Ningbo Chuangrun New Materials Co., Ltd. "annual output of 250 tons of electronic-grade low-oxygen ultra-high-purity titanium project" put into operation to fill the gaps in the technology of China's high-end titanium materials, means that China has low-oxygen ultra-high-purity titanium independent production capacity, to achieve the independent self-sufficiency of this strategic metal, completely free from dependence on foreign countries. After the monopoly is broken, the direct benefit is the aerospace field.
Measure the scale of a country's titanium industry has two important indicators: titanium sponge production and titanium production, of which titanium sponge production reflects the raw material production capacity, titanium production reflects the deep processing capacity. Titanium industry has formed China, the United States, the CIS, Japan and Europe five major production and consumption.
