As a rare metal element, titanium's performance is far beyond what we see. General power generation equipment, especially the side with a lower thermal cycle temperature, provides an ideal use environment for titanium.
It is possible to develop a new type of titanium alloy tube that can be used at higher operating temperatures. Compared with the high-strength and low-temperature titanium alloy tubes that have been developed, it will have greater potential in saving metal and improving efficiency. The future goal is to develop a titanium tube that can reach a service temperature of 650°C. This alloy can be used in high-pressure turbine disks, which can reduce the weight by 20% compared with the commonly used base disks.
However, as the operating temperature increases, more new problems will inevitably arise, such as surface oxidation, long-term stability of large-volume metallurgical production, friction corrosion, fire hazard and hot salt stress corrosion. Some problems can be solved by surface coating or surface treatment, and research in this area is currently being actively carried out.
