Why are titanium household items so noble?

Titanium is a silvery white metal with chemical symbol Ti. Titanium is widely used in aerospace, nuclear power metallurgy, medical and military industry, chemical electronics, artificial joints, sports equipment, outdoor home and many other fields because of its high melting point, low density, high strength, corrosion resistance, good biocompatibility, shape memory and hydrogen storage. It is an important strategic material of a country, and is known as "the third metal", "intelligent metal", "space metal" and "space metal".

Pure titanium household items, as the darling of the new era, have quietly come to our lives. Because it is in a high temperature, acidic or alkaline food environment, there is no dissolution of pathogenic and carcinogenic heavy metals such as nickel, chromium and manganese, and it has the characteristics of never rusting, natural bacteriostatic, biological, durable and fresh. , well received by consumers. But its price is no less than that of high-end consumer goods, which makes many consumers flinch. People can't help wondering, what is the reason for the high price of titanium household goods?

Pure titanium tableware

Let's analyze it from the following reasons:

First, the material cost is expensive.

In daily life, the commonly used materials for household items are generally stainless steel, iron, ceramics or glass. Because the technology is mature, the cost has been optimized in the most controllable way, and the price has been completely accepted by the market. Although titanium is abundant in nature, its oxide is extremely stable, and it is difficult to extract because of its dispersion. The melting point of pure titanium is about 1668 degrees, so it must be melted at high temperature in a vacuum environment, otherwise it is easy to directly combine with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon. Therefore, the preparation cost of elemental titanium is high, and it was once regarded as a rare precious metal. In addition, the heat treatment of titanium metal products (such as plates) must also be carried out under the protection of vacuum or argon, and the yield is lower than that of conventional metals. For these reasons, the price of titanium plate with the same size is about ten times that of stainless steel 304.

Second, it is difficult to process.

Titanium material itself is a typical difficult-to-process material, which requires extremely high equipment, molds, tools, tooling and processing technology. But once formed, it can be said to be "indestructible", and even aqua regia can't help it. The difficulties in processing titanium profiles are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

1) the machinability of titanium: gaseous impurities (oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc. ) has a great influence on the machinability of titanium alloy, because titanium has high chemical activity and is easy to combine with gas impurities. When the temperature exceeds 600 degrees, titanium is oxidized to form a brittle layer, the so-called "texture layer"; Hydrogen embrittlement with hydrogen; Hard and brittle tin is formed by nitrogen at high temperature. The plasticity of titanium alloy is small, which obviously affects its plastic deformation during cutting. The deformation coefficient of titanium alloy is only 1 or even less than 1, while that of ordinary carbon steel is about 3. When cutting, the contact surface between the chip and the rake face is very small, which makes the pressure and local temperature in the contact area high and the tool wears quickly. Severe work hardening will occur in titanium alloy during processing.

2) Difficulties in welding titanium:

Titanium is too active at high temperature during welding, and the ability of titanium and its alloys to absorb hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen is also obviously improved. After these gases are absorbed, they will directly cause embrittlement of welded joints, and cracks, pores and other phenomena will easily occur, which will affect the welding quality. Therefore, the welding of titanium should be carried out in a vacuum welding box or under the protection of inert gas. Many years' practical experience in the factory shows that argon arc welding has a good effect, because argon arc welding can control the size of molten pool well. The welding internal stress of titanium is too large, and the weld seam should not be too thick, as long as the parent metal is well fused. The internal stress of wide weld increases, which is not conducive to long-term use and subsequent drawing processing. Moreover, due to the special metal characteristics of titanium, the internal stress can not be reduced by grinding the weld surface in the later stage, so the weld can only be controlled as narrow as possible under the condition of penetration.

3) It is difficult to pull out titanium;

First of all, the drawing process of titanium requires high material, specification tolerance and tensile properties of titanium plate, and requires stable and consistent properties of titanium plate. However, the titanium industry is still in the stage of rapid development. At present, the performance requirements of titanium plates on the market are uneven, and the material selection needs to be cautious and strict. Then, the drawing process of titanium requires high mold matching, otherwise the product is easy to wrinkle or break. Finally, the rotating speed of equipment and lubricating oil used in titanium wire drawing process are also very particular, and the heat treatment of materials drawn for many times is even more difficult, which will directly lead to the reduction of finished products.

4) The surface treatment of titanium is difficult:

The processing cost of titanium surface treatment is several times or even more than ten times that of stainless steel, aluminum or copper, because the five elements of titanium polishing "man, machine, material, method and time" are different from conventional materials. For example, the processing fee for polishing stainless steel spoons is 0.6 yuan, while that for titanium spoons is 7 yuan. In addition, the surface treatment of titanium, such as chromonic oxidation, nitriding, micro-arc oxidation, carburizing and nitriding, also needs further study.

Third, the average cost of titanium household goods is high.

1) development cost: the development cost of pure titanium household products is higher than that of traditional products. Taking the research and development of electric kettle as an example, it takes about 6 months from design to mass production for stainless steel electric kettle, while the research and development cycle for pure titanium electric kettle will be longer, because the relevant experimental data of titanium civilian products are incomplete, and the mold needs to be revised and debugged repeatedly, and the mold may be scrapped. The related personnel investment, equipment investment and experimental materials investment can be imagined.

2) Mold cost: If a high-quality electric kettle can be successfully opened at one time, the mold cost will be about 350,000 yuan, and the mold cost will be about 1 yuan if it is allocated to hundreds of thousands of stainless steel electric kettles, while the mold cost will reach 10- 15 yuan for a small number of pure titanium electric kettles.

3) Marketing: Because authoritative academic institutions or mainstream media have little research and reports on titanium and titanium products, many end consumers know little about titanium, let alone the practical benefits of using titanium household products. At present, thanks to the development and long-term unremitting promotion of some brands in their respective fields, a small gap in the titanium product market has been opened. However, few people dare to be the first to eat crabs, and the price of high-end consumer goods is destined to be higher than similar products. Take the mainstream e-commerce platform as an example. If we invest another 20,000 yuan in advertising fees, similar products made of other materials can generate dozens or hundreds of orders, and at the same time, it can also bring thousands of views and improve the brand and product awareness, while titanium products may be rarely or not sold.

To sum up, titanium metal materials are expensive, titanium materials are difficult to process, the finished product rate of titanium household products is low, and other shared costs are high, so the cost of titanium household products is also high. Fortunately, at present, enterprises and individuals inside and outside the industry, in various media platforms and different industry channels, are actively trying to popularize the basic knowledge of titanium, promote titanium home products, and let more people know, be familiar with and enjoy titanium. On the other hand, the increasing demand for titanium products will promote the progress of processing technology and technology, and will directly reduce the various costs of titanium products. I believe that in the near future, titanium household items will become a household name, adding a solid guarantee for more people's happy and healthy life.

The excellent characteristics of titanium determine the nobility of titanium household products! He is expensive for a reason, expensive and valuable!

Zhongshan Heshun Titanium Industry Co., Ltd. focuses on the design, research and development, production and sales of titanium civil household products. Focusing on pure titanium electric kettle series products, facing the market, trying to promote the terminal market and spread the concept of healthy titanium life, so that titanium products can add a solid guarantee for the healthy life of more people!

Titanium era, new life, the future has come!