What’s New at LMA September – 2009

Titanium Article Archive Now Available

Light Metal Age has released a new database. The Titanium Article Archive is an easily searchable database of over 500 titanium-focused articles from the pages of Light Metal Age magazine from November 1945 to August 2009 on a CD.

The database features a wide selection of titanium articles, editorial, and news items spanning 67+ years, for example:

• “Titanium – New Commercial Light Metal,” published October 1948, covers the small scale manufacture of titanium metal by the Du Pont Company. The article also looks at titanium as a new basic raw material for industrial manufacture and presents possible uses.
• “Big Titanium Deposit Said on Molokai,” published February 1954, describes the discovery of a rich titanium deposit in the Hawaiian Islands.

• “Lockheed Develops New Techniques for Forming Titanium,” published February 1967, looks at Lockheed’s development of an assortment of tools and techniques for forming titanium in the process of devising production methods for its version of the supersonic transport. (TIG Torch melt-through of wing beam shear webs for the Lockheed 2000 supersonic transport is pictured.)
• “Chemical Milling with Fluosilicate Acid,” published June 1970, explains that fluosilicic acid solutions rapidly and efficiently mill titanium metal and presents correlations among acid concentration, solution temperature, and observed milling rates.
• “Plasma Surface Treatment of Titanium and Titanium Alloys,” published October 1989, presents the technological and practical aspects of plasma surface hardening of titanium and its alloys using nitrogen glow discharge and its effect on certain physical and mechanical properties.
• “Titanium Proves Superior in Severe Corrosive Atmosphere of Geothermal Wells,” published June 1991, examines the effects of Beta-C titanium on corrosion in geothermal wells, and describes early operations at Salton Sea brines, the field experience after commercial operation. Various tests are conducted, including material testing, full-size Beta-C tubular tests, and stress corrosion tests.
• “2.5 Million Titanium Golf Clubs,” published February 1997, reports on the expansion of the titanium golf club markets and gives details of the author’s visit to Coastcast, a titanium golf club manufacturer in Southern California, revealing the company’s manufacturing process. (Polishing of the golf head and the final product are pictured.)

• “Shape Memory Alloys Flex Their Muscle,” published Aug 2001, looks at the shape memory alloy, Nitinol, made from equal parts titanium and nickel, which is used to make Muscle Wires for applications like robotics or “Smart Shirts” (clothing that interacts with the wearers body temperature).

• “Titanium Glimmers with Long-Term Promise,” published April 2002, summarizes the 17th Conference of the International Titanium Association, in Las Vegas, NV. Presentations included topics such as worldwide titanium trends, emerging markets, titanium in consumer medical products, powder injection molding, and architectural use of titanium. (Pictured is the Beijing Grand National Theater, which used 200 metric tons of titanium for exterior cladding.)
• “Production of Titanium and Titanium Alloy Bars from Skull Melted Ingots,” published February 2009, covers TiFast’s use of skull melting technology for production of ingots from titanium scrap.

This archive is an encyclopedic look at the titanium industry, covering everything from the history, process development, and technological advancements to market outlooks, new products and applications, and more.