Titanium Production Costs Halved

19 Mar 08

It is hailed as a miracle metal, but producing titanium comes at a high cost. Australia is among the front-runners in the race for a cheaper production process.

CSIRO's Light Metals Flagship research aims to create a world scale titanium industry, based on continuous processing and integrated with downstream manufacturing, in Australia by 2012.

Titanium:

• is as strong as steel but about half the weight
• is corrosion resistant
• has a high melting point.

These characteristics make it very attractive to industry.

Titanium is also biocompatible, making it uniquely suitable for human joint replacements.

While titanium is used extensively in aerospace applications, its wider use is presently hampered by costly and difficult production, making it too expensive for industrial applications in the surface transport, building, water, chemical and marine industries.

Australia has a world-class mineral sands resource base.

The titanium-containing minerals ilmenite and rutile are feed stocks for the production of most paints, pigments, plastics and ceramics.

But there is currently no titanium metal industry in this country, although with our excellent resource base, low energy costs and skilled labour force, Australia represents a natural centre for titanium metal production.

Flagship research is drawing on CSIRO’s titanium expertise which spans the entire value chain, from titanium minerals characterisation to manufactured products, to develop cost-cutting process and production technologies (such as Titanium Metal Injection Moulding) that will maximise these advantages and establish a world scale titanium industry in Australia.

Click here to learn more about CSIRO's research into titanium powder production.

Click here to locate companies engaged in materials research.

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