ke422azn

posts your answers.

VeganRider

Yes, it cost more because it's worth it. Not as easy to work with in production either.

johnny99

Titanium is difficult to manufacture. Steel and aluminum are much easier to work with, on either a big or small scale.

ke422azn

thats not a good answer. It cost more cuz its worth it? BY that definition, air should cost thousands of dollars, since you need it to live.

ke422azn

why is it hard to manufacture?

UmneyDurak

You would think Chemical Engineer will know the answer to that question....

ke422azn

i do know just quizzing you

KrisPistofferson

You've gotten really tiresome, really quickly.

Serpico

ke422azn=TROLL ALERT

"Hello, this is ke422azn... bikeforums, can you hear me?"

jhota

wth is the point of that? ^

slvoid

"Why is titanium expensive?"
"Titanium is expensive because it is..."
"..NOT A GOOD ANSWER!"

NO MORE POSTS FOR YOU! NEXT!

jhota

i'm gonna blame you when my head implodes.

UmneyDurak

Looking at some of your other posts, I seriously doubt it.

ke422azn

ill tell you noob


titanium is expensive because:

titanium is a very "hard" metal. It bonds strongly to electronegative elements especially oxygen. Most titanium found are in the forum of titanium oxide. The problem in manufacturing, is getting the oxide of the titanium. The energy to separate such stable bond is extremely high.

ChAnMaN

what a nifty little piece of trivia, Im so glad you could enlighten us with your awsome knowledge.

slvoid

No one cares.
Besides, I know how to use google too and since I'm home lounging my lazy ass all day after my race this morning, I have nothing better to do other than clean my bike and watch tv.
Look what I found on google. It's much more interesting.
"Titanium metal is not found unbound to other elements in nature but the element is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust (0.6% by mass) and is present in most igneous rocks and in sediments derived from them (as well as in living things and natural bodies of water). It is widely-distributed and occurs primarily in the minerals anatase, brookite, ilmenite, perovskite, rutile, titanite (sphene), as well in many iron ores. Of these minerals, only ilmenite and rutile have significant economic importance, yet even they are difficult to find in high concentrations. Because it reacts easily with oxygen and carbon at high temperatures it is difficult to prepare pure titanium metal, crystals, or powder. Significant titanium ore deposits are in Australia, Scandinavia, North America and Malaysia.

This metal is found in meteorites and has been detected in the sun and in M-type stars. Rocks brought back from the moon during the Apollo 17 mission are composed of 12.1% TiO2. Titanium is also found in coal ash, plants, and even the human body.


Titanium (Mineral Concentrate)Because the metal reacts with air at high temperatures it can not be produced by reduction of its dioxide. Titanium metal is therefore produced commercially by the Kroll process; a complex, and expensive batch process developed in 1946 by William Justin Kroll. In the Kroll process chlorine gas is passed over red-hot rutile or ilmenite in the presence of carbon to make TiCl4. This is condensed and purified by fractional distillation and then reduced with 800°C molten magnesium in an argon atmosphere.

A newer process called the FFC Cambridge Process may displace this older process. This method uses the feedstock titanium dioxide powder (which is a refined form of rutile) to make the end product which is either a powder or sponge. If mixed oxide powders are used, the product is an alloy at a much lower cost than the conventional multi-step melting process. It is hoped that the FFC Cambridge Process will render titanium a less rare and expensive material for the aerospace industry and the luxury goods market, and will be seen in many products currently manufactured using aluminium and specialist grades of steel.

Titanium oxide is produced commercially by grinding its mineral ore and mixing it with potassium carbonate and aqueous hydrofluoric acid. This yields potassium fluorotitanate (K2TiF6) which is extracted with hot water and decomposed with ammonia, producing a ammoniacal hydrated oxide. This in turn is ignited in a platinum vessel, which creates pure titanium dioxide.

Common titanium alloys are made by reduction. For example; cuprotitanium (rutile with copper added is reduced), ferrocarbon titanium (ilmenite reduced with coke in an electric furnace), and manganotitanium (rutile with manganese or manganese oxides are reduced).

[edit]
Compounds
The +4 oxidation state dominates in titanium chemistry, but compounds in the +3 oxidation state are also common. Because of this high oxidation state, many titanium compounds have a high degree of covalent bonding.

Although titanium metal is relatively uncommon, due to the cost of extraction, titanium dioxide (also called titanium(IV), titanium white, or even titania) is cheap, nontoxic, readily available in bulk, and very widely used as a white pigment in paint, enamel, lacquer, plastic and construction cement. TiO2 powder is chemically inert, resists fading in sunlight, and is very opaque: this allows it to impart a pure and brilliant white color to the brown or gray chemicals that form the majority of household plastics. In nature, this compound is found in the minerals anatase, brookite, and rutile.

Paint made with titanium dioxide does well in severe temperatures, is somewhat self-cleaning, and stands up to marine environments. Pure titanium dioxide has a very high index of refraction and an optical dispersion higher than diamond. Star sapphires and rubies get their asterism from the titanium dioxide present in them. Titanates are compounds made with titanium dioxide. Barium titanate has piezoelectric properties, thus making it possible to use it as a transducer in the interconversion of sound and electricity. Esters of titanium are formed by the reaction of alcohols and titanium tetrachloride and are used to waterproof fabrics.

Titanium(IV) chloride (titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, sometimes called "Tickle") is a colorless, weakly acidic liquid which is used as an intermediate in the manufacture of titanium(IV) oxide for paint. It is widely used in organic chemistry as a Lewis acid, for example in the Mukaiyama aldol condensation. Titanium also forms a lower chloride, titanium(III) chloride (TiCl3), which is used as a reducing agent.

Titanocene dichloride is an important catalyst for carbon-carbon bond formation. Titanium isopropoxide is used for Sharpless epoxidation. Other compounds include; Titanium bromide (used in metallurgy, superalloys, and high-temperature electrical wiring and coatings) and titanium carbide (found in high-temperature cutting tools and coatings)."

ke422azn

ur welcome. Nothing else to do. Im at work, working on titanium stents, though id see if u guys knew anything about titanium since you ppl talk about it so much.

ke422azn

you got me on the google. Im not really a chemical engineer, its just my dream. I dunno why im on the University of Washington chemcial engineering dept directory either.

UmneyDurak

Well if you don't know, then I suggest you find out.

slvoid

He can use google.

UmneyDurak

I don't know ask ke422azn, I think he is in to that kind of thing.

climbo

titaniums is cheap. Titanium is the expensive stuff.

twahl

Bet that's not the only directory you're on, is it?

jhota

i always figured titanium was expensive because of two things -

1 - difficulty to produce (already mentioned)

2 - extensive use in military applications.

it's gotten a lot cheaper since the end of the Cold War; the Soviets were building three Ti hulled submarines a year. each one of those hulls had more Ti in it than the US produced in a year. in 1985, 63% of the world's Ti output went to missile and military aircraft production.

that's a lot of demand.

even now, there is a lot of military hardware that uses Ti. and the bike industry isn't going to outbid the government...

twahl

Sorry 53, I was just picking on our chemical engineer's use of AOLese.

Oh, and if you google my user name, a lot of those twahl people aren't me.