Since the discovery of titanium in 1790, humans have embarked on a century long arduous exploration to achieve its extraordinary performance. In 1910, humans made titanium metal for the first time, but the application of titanium alloys was arduous and long, and it was not until 1951, 40 years later, that industrial production was achieved.

China has been engaged in the research and application of titanium alloy processing since the 1960s.

Titanium alloy has the characteristics of high specific strength, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, and fatigue resistance. A titanium alloy of the same size weighs only 60% of steel, but it has higher strength than alloy steel. Titanium alloy, due to its excellent properties, is often used in the medical field, such as artificial joints, bone fixation devices, dentures, and so on.

Titanium alloy is widely used in aircraft structural components and heat-resistant components, and is one of the main structural materials for contemporary aircraft and engines, known as the "space metal".

But titanium alloy is like a fierce horse that must be tamed to achieve its goal of traveling thousands of miles a day. So how can titanium alloy be "tamed"?

Titanium alloy has poor thermal conductivity, high hardness, and is prone to rebound. The thermal conductivity difference is reflected in the customized processing of titanium alloy, where the heat generated by friction is very large. If it is other metals, it will quickly transfer to the whole, such as the pot we usually use.

However, titanium alloy has poor thermal conductivity, which continuously accumulates heat, making the titanium alloy sticky, making the cutting tools brittle and severely worn, and even damaging them, as if cutting rubber candy with a knife.

Titanium alloy has high hardness, making it easier to process aluminum alloy materials that are also used in airplanes: processing 1 meter of titanium alloy material can process 25 meters of aluminum alloy material, and it is also more cost saving. However, aluminum alloy strength is difficult to meet the requirements, so although titanium alloy processing is difficult, it is very necessary. Moreover, titanium alloy has severe rebound, which affects the machining accuracy of parts, especially for thin-walled and complex shaped parts, the machining difficulty is greater.

With the increasing maturity of titanium alloy processing technology, continuous improvement and enhancement of processing equipment and tools, it is now possible to achieve stable processing of ultra large structural components and precision complex parts. Its processing accuracy can be stable at 0.2 millimeters, and locally can reach 0.1 millimeters, which is the thickness of an A4 paper, or even finer, and the processing efficiency has significantly improved.

Strong milling, shallow cutting and high-speed milling make the processing of titanium alloy parts faster and more stable. We have developed methods such as superplastic forming for titanium alloy sheet metal processing, compressed air stirring for chemical milling treatment, and small current rapid welding for welding to tame these fierce horses.

Titanium alloy, a thousand mile horse, can only be used for aviation equipment manufacturing by us. We believe that with the continuous research and exploration of technology workers in the aviation industry, our understanding of titanium alloy will gradually deepen. We will have more means to tame titanium alloy, which will make greater contributions to China's aviation industry!