How Is Titanium Made?

Ever wondered how titanium, the superhero of metals, is made? From mining raw ore to creating the strong, lightweight material used in aerospace, medical implants, and even jewelry, this video uncovers the intricate process of titanium production. Discover the Kroll process, the role of alloys, and why titanium is considered a metal of the future. Don’t miss this fascinating journey into the making of one of the world’s most versatile materials!

Shout out to @user-nx8tk1pp5o  for suggesting the topic, thank you!

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro: Why Titanium Is Remarkable
0:43 - Mining Titanium Ore
1:37 - The Kroll Process: Extracting Pure Titanium
3:00 - Transforming Titanium Sponge into Metal
3:58 - Alloying Titanium for Specialized Uses
4:50 - Machining and Finishing Titanium Products
5:39 - Environmental Impact and Sustainability
6:38 - Why Titanium Is Worth the Effort
7:29 - Titanium: A Metal for the Future

#Titanium #HowItsMade #KrollProcess #MetalProduction #ScienceExplained #Engineering #AerospaceMaterials #SustainableMetals #Manufacturing #InnovativeMaterials #TitaniumUses #TechExplained

[drewapple]

I have two 12 titanium rods in my lower back. I shattered my lower back L1 and L2 into hundreds of pieces from a helicopter crash 35 miles offshore. I was on my way to work on an oil/gas platform when something broke while landing and the pilot loss controlled and we slam into the water with the impact of going of 100 mph. 10 hrs of back surgery 61 days in the hospital and over 18 months of rehabilitation. I always say I break my back for my family and I didn’t die.

[josephkovalcik]

I'm a retired journeyman machinist, I've machined many different materials. My take on titanium is that it's like a light weight steel, a bit heavier than aluminum but tough like steel. I never had any issues machining it. I don't buy into the super tough metal thing, in fact many good quality alloy steels are tougher than titanium. It is much tougher than aluminum though a good match for aerospace applications where a tough light weight metal is needed.

[Rem]

Was offered a job as a Senior I&E maintenance tech at the titanium plant in Henderson Nevada. Ended up declining, after being told plant seniority would have me forced on day shift during the summer and nights during the winter. Day time of 110 at a foundry didn't sound like fun.

[thomascampbell]

I have a large block of titanium which had used in a Soviet submarine. The sub had been undergoing repairs in East Germany when the Berlin wall came down and rather than pay to have her fixed the Russians allowed her to be cut up and salvaged and the pieces became important to military intelligence.

[stevemoorby]

I have a bike with a Ti frame. It's machined but unpolished grey blue finish is beautiful. Combined with carbon fibre wheels and other components it makes for a very light bike which some of my mates won't sit on because they fear it's not strong enough. It's 10 years old already and the frame looks almost as good as new.

[Cknoble]

Titanium cuts like butter with the right tools. It is my preferred metal to machine. Super easy, super finishes, amazing dim control, etc. It is amazing.

[brainfarth]

I was a rework welder of jet engine compressor vanes(blades). We cast and repaired Ti-Al (titanium - aluminum) alloy parts that required high temps in a chamber to be welded. The parts would be brightly glowing red and would ring like cold steel when struck.

[kenwise]

When I remodeled the bathroom in our 1920 house I put in a old looking pedestal sink and wanted to use some stainless steel for the backsplash but found the perfect sized piece of titanium in my scrap metal pile.

[dudeonbike]

Back in the 90's the bike shops I managed had all sorts of high-end components on display under glass. Anodized components of all sorts and colors that demanded high prices. Bike bling. Along with those were all manner of titanium parts, bolts, quick releases, and screws to impress and tempt those who wanted to make their bikes just that much nicer. One guy was at the counter looking at all the various stuff when he noticed some titanium hardware that looked strange. Didn't think they were bolts he'd ever seen on a bike before so he asked about them.
"Oh those are the screws that were in THAT guy's broken leg for about a year until they took 'em out!"
Ha, ha, ha! That shop crew cracked me up.

[patrickl]

One of the key properties you failed to mention is that Ti naturally integrates with bone making it the choice for bone screws and many implants.

[magicprocess_]

Great work! Titanium is a fantastic material but comes with challenges. It’s energy-intensive to produce and expensive, as refining it requires a lot of electricity. While it's strong and lightweight, titanium is prone to cracking, and repairs are harder than with steel. A good example of this is the aerospace industry, where titanium is used in jet engines for its strength-to-weight ratio. However, it's often a challenge to repair titanium components if they get damaged, as the process is more complex than fixing steel parts.

[ahill]

I graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a metallurgical engineering degree. One of my professors was Dr. Albert Schlechten, who was the first director of the W.J. Kroll Institute of Extractive Metallurgy. Dr. Schlechten co-developed the most popular process for refining zirconium with Kroll. One interesting note is that Kroll was from Luxembourg and his given first name was "Guillaume" which became "Wilhelm" when he worked in Germany, and later William after moving to the US prior to WWII. Titanium is expensive, but its best application is being able to maintain strength at high temperatures, which makes it a popular metal used in aircraft engines and exhausts. China is now the largest producer of titanium ore at nearly 3x the tonnage of second place Australia.

[MarkSmith-jspu]

I didn’t know that titanium was such a common element. It was used extensively on the SR-71 Blackbird. Back then, the known reserves were in the USSR and the story of how the US obtained it for the BlackBird during the Cold War was quite clever.

[hansevers]

Thanks for this beautiful vid. As a retired engineer developing rare machinery for vacuum filtration and Eutectic Freeze Crystallisation I have to say, like it. I developed vacuum belt filters made of almost purest titanium (grade 2) and I have to say one of the most incredible materials I ever used. I like to suggest to investigate Eutectic Freeze Crystallisation. The process is environmental friendly and can be used for the separation of water and salts.

[raylivengood]

Titanium is better to work with than steel. For one it doesn’t splinter when burred, it flakes. In argon environment it doesn’t spark when a burr is put to it. In a normal oxygenated environment it sparks and can start a fire. As for welding titanium (aerospace etc.), it is very easy to work with, especially when welding in a argon gas filled chamber. Outside of a chamber (also TIG) it’s necessary to keep the argon gas on the Ti until it cools enough to prevent alpha case oxidation from developing.

[Kneedragon]

Good work.
Ti is a super material, but there are some issues with it. For one, it is difficult & expensive to make. That's not because the ore is rare (it isn't) that's because refining the ore down to pure metal uses a large amount of electricity. This is also true of Aluminium but Titanium is worse.
Second, Ti is tough and light and strong and great, but it is vulnerable to cracking, and fixing that is a lot harder than fixing it in steel.
BSA were a British motorcycle manufacturer, very successful in the 1940s and early '50s. So they built a bike to go racing off-road, what we would call MotorCross. And word came down from the Board of Directors to make the frame of the next version, from Titanium.
Sounds good, on the surface, but that turned out to be a death sentence. the 'Ti' BSA was a dog that cracked and broke and bounced and handled terribly, because they simply tried to reproduce their Chrome Molly frame in Ti ~ and that's not how you do this.
The Ti Beeza stands as a lesson for all of industry ~ don't let Members of the Board of Directors make engineering decisions. They weren't hired because of their engineering skills ~ they're on there because they own lots of shares. They're rich. In theory, they know about money and banking and business, but that doesn't mean they know enough to tie an engineer's bootlace.
Intel ~ are you listening to me?

[shaunybonny]

I work at a titanium melt shop. Can confirm this is accurate.

[tophamatic]

How about a video on Inconel, where it came from, and how it's made.

[TheTaurus]

Appears a Nobium alloy was the hypersonic missile breakthrough material which allows the missile to survive 3000 c degrees of heat and is exceptionally strong. Even more amazing, the Nobium alloy was discovered on the space station and helped to confirm earth and it's gravity effects how alloys are created. Oh yeah, not to mention Brazil has 80% of the world's Nobium reserves and it's mostly privately owned while China has 10% of the world's reserve. So for a future episode, how about what is Nobium, how it's mined and processed, and so on.

[stormcomilang]

I make an average of 600 titanium screws for human/animal bones everyday… been doing it for 12 years now. Because of Ti, i’m living the life