IRVINE, Calif. -- Titanium is one of the most important materials that is used in many applications today. It has been over 200 years since titanium was discovered, but it was only in the late 1940's that it was used for commercial and industrial applications. Titanium metals are now used for aircrafts, medical equipment, sporting goods, automotive components, and several other applications.
Pure titanium is hard to find, since it has to be extracted from rutile and the process is long and quite expensive. Commercial grade titanium has a strength similar to low-grade steel alloys but is about 45% less dense than steel. The biggest world producer of titanium metals today are China, followed by Russia and Japan.
Here are ten important trivia about titanium metals:
1. Titanium was dubbed as the "strategic metal", "wonder metal" and "metal of the future" in the mid 1950s. It has the unique physical properties of low density, high strength-to-weight ratio, durability and corrosion resistance, which makes it an ideal material for aircrafts and spacecrafts.
2. Titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of all earth metals. This means products made of titanium are stronger but less heavier.
3. The Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, which was first flown in 1964, was made of 93% titanium metals.It was designed to withstand 500゜F. The silver gray titanium surface was painted black to protect it from extreme heat and to protect the pilot from the blinding sunlight.
4. The fastest submarine ever built, the Soviet Project 661 - The Anchar, has a lightweight titanium hull which allows it to move at an unprecedented speed record of 51 miles per hour.
5. In 1955, General Motors Firebird II experimental concept car's body was built entirely from titanium. However, the concept car was never produced for mass consumption and the Firebird name was later on adopted by Ford for another line of cars.
6. In 2001, Apple computer introduced into the market a laptop computer with a titanium case. Apple was the first company to use 95.5% pure grade titanium metals for its Apple G4 titanium PowerBook . The laptop weighs only at 5.3 pounds.
7. In the 1960s, titanium metals became popular materials for racing bike frames, which weigh only about 2.5 pounds on the average. Extremely expensive titanium bike frames were welded by automaker Lamborghini in the '60s and the bikes were ridden to victory during the Tour de France bike race. Mass production of bikes with titanium frames started in 1974.
8. The Cerritos Public Library was the first building in the U.S. to have a titanium exterior. The library's exterior was clad in titanium metals when it was renovated in 2002.
9. The most famous building covered in titanium metals is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. This was built in 1997 by Frank O, Gehry and about 343,000 sq. ft. of titanium covered the building.
10. The Boeing 777 contains about 34,200 pounds of titanium metals.It entered service in 1995 and is still the most titanium-intensive commercial plane in the world.
By Stanford Materials http://stanfordmaterials.com
Stanford Materials Corporation is a worldwide supplier of various oxides, metals, alloys, advanced ceramic materials, and minerals. It was established in 1994 to supply high quality rare earth products to our customers in the research and development fields. To meet increasing demands for rare earth products and other materials, Stanford Materials now carries a variety of materials to serve not only our customers in research and development but also manufacturers in the ceramic, metallurgy and electronic industries. Stanford Materials carries both technical grade materials for industries as well as high purity chemicals (up to 99.99999%) for research institutes.
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