Titanium alloy is a strong, lightweight material made of titanium mixed with other metals. It has many applications, including aerospace engineering, medical implants, and sports equipment. The most common blend is 90% titanium, 6% aluminum, and 4% vanadium. Titanium is extracted from ores and is relatively expensive. The alloy is used in military hardware and high-end automobiles.
Titanium alloy is a metallic material consisting of titanium mixed with other metals, usually small amounts of palladium, vanadium, aluminum and/or tin. These metals provide improved properties over pure titanium, such as corrosion resistance, good weldability (machinability), stability and resistance to elevated temperatures. Pure titanium is very hard which can make it difficult to weld and shape.
The only typical application for pure titanium is orthopedic and dental implants, while titanium’s myriad other applications including aerospace engineering, high-temperature engines, medical and marine processing, and sports equipment use the alloy of titanium. Many alloys of other metals also contain small amounts of titanium, but these are not considered titanium alloys unless titanium makes up the majority of the substance.
Titanium is often regarded as a wonder metal due to its high strength and light weight. As strong as steel and twice as strong as aluminum, titanium is 45% lighter than steel and only 60% heavier than aluminum. It also has the benefit of being non-reactive with the human body, making it ideal for medical implants such as pins to hold broken bones together. However, its high cost has limited its use.
Titanium is relatively common in the earth’s crust, making up about 0.57% (the 9th most common element), but extracting it from its ores – the ores Rutile (TiO2), Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and Sphene (CaTiSiO5) – can be expensive, due to the high heat input required. Elemental titanium was first isolated in its pure form in 1910, when Matthew A. Hunter heated TiCl4 with sodium to 800°C (1472°F).
There are 38 common types of titanium alloy, but the typical blend is 90% titanium, 6% aluminum, and 4% vanadium. This mix is called grade 5. There are titanium grades from 1 to 38, with 38 being the latest one invented. The grades do not indicate strength or anything, they are just used for easy reference, although the earlier grades were the first to be commonly produced. Grade 5 titanium is also known as Titanium 6AL-4V which is considered suitable for military use. This grade of titanium alloy is stable in applications up to 400°C (752°F), with the stereotypical application in aircraft turbines, which spin very rapidly and get very hot.
In addition to seeing widespread use in military hardware, titanium alloy can be found in the connecting rods of high-end automobiles such as Porsche and Ferrari. The presence of these metals is part of what can make these cars so expensive, but also reliable and capable of high speeds. A similar high-end material found in premium products is carbon fiber.
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