1. Reduce raw material costs
Titanium metal has a high melting point and very active chemical properties. It has strong chemical affinity with elements such as O, H, N and C, making it difficult to extract pure titanium. The Kroll magnesium reduction method is commonly used in industry to produce titanium sponge. The Kroll magnesium reduction method to produce titanium sponge has a complicated process, high energy consumption, long cycle, and cannot be produced continuously. At the same time, a large amount of metallic magnesium is used as a reducing agent, and the production cost is high.
TiO2 can be directly electrochemically reduced in molten CaCl2. This method has a short production cycle for producing titanium sponge, and the production cost is reduced by 40%.
Most titanium alloys use expensive V as an alloying element to improve strength, and these alloying elements are mostly added with Al-X as a master alloy. Replacing V elements with cheap Fe, Cr and other alloy elements is an effective way to reduce the cost of titanium alloys.
With the advancement of titanium smelting technology, it is an effective method to reduce raw material costs by adding scraps, scraps and other residual materials generated during the production and processing of titanium as furnace charges after a series of treatments to achieve cyclic production.
2. Reduce processing costs
Casting is a classic net (near) forming process. Parts are produced with little or no machining, resulting in significant metal savings. Casting can often produce parts with complex shapes. However, these parts are complicated to manufacture using other traditional methods and have high production costs, especially for titanium metal, which has relatively high material prices.
Currently, titanium castings are widely used in the aviation industry. In the automobile manufacturing industry, components produced by casting methods include valves, turbochargers, etc. As an advanced technical method of modern metallurgy and material processing, powder metallurgy plays an important role in the titanium industry. Using titanium powder metallurgy near-forming technology, finished products or parts close to finished product size can be directly produced, which reduces raw material consumption, shortens the processing cycle, and saves costs by 20% to 50% compared to conventional processes.
At present, the research on titanium powder metallurgy is in a stage of rapid development, which mainly includes several aspects. One is the preparation technology of high-quality and low-cost titanium powder and its industrialization; the other is the preparation technology of titanium powder metallurgy, which is also promoted and applied in the automobile industry.
