

Titanium Fills Vital Role for Boeing and Russia - davi
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/business/global/titanium-fills-vital-role-for-boeing-and-russia.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all

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jtchang
Can anyone describe a bit about titanium and how it is hard to work with?

Are there special considerations that you have to take when working with the
metal?

~~~
gwern
> In terms of fabrication, all welding of titanium must be done in an inert
> atmosphere of argon or helium in order to shield it from contamination with
> atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, or hydrogen.[11] Contamination
> will cause a variety of conditions, such as embrittlement, which will reduce
> the integrity of the assembly welds and lead to joint failure. Commercially
> pure flat product (sheet, plate) can be formed readily, but processing must
> take into account the fact that the metal has a "memory" and tends to spring
> back. This is especially true of certain high-strength alloys.[48][49]
> Titanium cannot be soldered without first pre-plating it in a metal that is
> solderable.[50] The metal can be machined using the same equipment and via
> the same processes as stainless steel.[11]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium#Production_and_fabric...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium#Production_and_fabrication)

There are other issues as well; for example, I was reading _Dreamland_ and it
mentioned that among the issues the SR-71 program ran into while working with
titanium, was discovering that tap water could _not_ be used with titanium-
related processes because the chlorine would weaken the titanium or something.

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dhughes
I thought the article would be about using titanium as part of a carbon-fibre
composite not hunks of (alloy) metal as ribs, that seems so old-fashioned.

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malandrew
Is it some sort of coincidence that this article came out today? The timing
makes this feel like a Boeing PR piece that was spun into a story to distract
from the plane crash. It was mostly about the mill, Avisma, and it's
importance in the aerospace industry, and the inclusion of Boeing in the
article felt really forced since pretty much all Airline manufacturers are
buying titanium from Avisma.

~~~
thorum
Probably a coincidence that the article was written today. Possibly _not_ a
coincidence that it was posted on HN today.

