Abstract:

In 1791, the British clergyman W. Gregor discovered a new metallic element in black magnetite. In 1795, the German chemist M. H. Klaproth also discovered this element while studying rutile and named it after the Greek god Titans. In 1910, the American scientist M. A. Hunter was the first to reduce TiCI with sodium: pure titanium was produced. In 1940, the Luxembourgish scientist W.J. kroll reduced TiCl with magnesium to produce pure titanium. Since then, the magnesium reduction method (also known as the Klauer process) and the sodium reduction method (also known as the Hunt process) have become the industrial methods for producing sponge titanium. In 1948, the United States produced 2 tons of sponge titanium using the magnesium reduction method, thus achieving industrial production scale. Subsequently, the United Kingdom, Japan, the former Soviet Union and China also successively entered industrial production, among which the major titanium producers were the former Soviet Union, Japan and the United States.

Titanium is a new metal. Due to its series of excellent properties, it is widely used in industrial production such as aviation, aerospace, chemical engineering, petroleum, metallurgy, light industry, power, seawater desalination, ships and daily household appliances. It is hailed as a modern metal. The production of metallic titanium has only a history of half a century since 1948. It is an emerging industry that has developed along with the aviation and aerospace industries. Its development has experienced several ups and downs, which is due to the fact that titanium is related to the aircraft manufacturing industry. Overall, however, the development speed of titanium is very fast, surpassing that of any other non-ferrous metal. This can be seen from the development of the global sponge titanium industry: the production scale of sponge titanium was 60,000 tons per year in the 1960s, 1 million tons per year in the 1970s, 130 tons per year in the 1980s, and had reached 140 tons per year by 1992. The actual output reached a historical high of 105kt per year in 1990.

After entering the 1990s, the market was sluggish in the previous years due to the reduction in military titanium production and the sale of sponge titanium inventories by some countries such as Russia. The titanium market began to recover in 1995, mainly due to a significant increase in the demand for titanium in civilian aircraft such as the B777 and golf clubs. The demand for titanium reached a new high in 1996. Experts predict that the demand for titanium will continue to increase significantly in the coming years. The main reason currently hindering the application of titanium is its high price. It can be expected that with the advancement of science and technology and the continuous improvement of titanium production processes, expanding the production capacity of enterprises and enhancing management levels, as well as further reducing the cost of titanium products, a broader titanium market will surely be opened up. (To be continued