Since the discovery of titanium in 1790, humans have embarked on a century long arduous exploration to obtain its extraordinary properties. In 1910, humans first produced metallic titanium, 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 researching and applying titanium alloy processing since the 1960s.

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

Titanium alloy is widely used in aircraft structural components and heat-resistant parts, 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 we "tame" titanium alloy?

Titanium alloy has poor thermal conductivity, high hardness, and is prone to rebound. The thermal conductivity difference is reflected in the large amount of heat generated by friction during the customized processing of titanium alloy. 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 constantly accumulates heat, making the titanium alloy sticky, making the cutting tool brittle and severely worn when heated, and even damaging the tool, as if cutting rubber candy with a knife.

Titanium alloy has a high hardness, making it easier to process aluminum alloy materials used in airplanes. It takes 1 meter of titanium alloy material to process 25 meters of aluminum alloy material, and it is also more fuel-efficient. However, the strength of aluminum alloy is difficult to meet the requirements. Therefore, 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 even greater.

With the increasing maturity of titanium alloy processing technology and continuous improvement and enhancement of processing equipment, cutting tools, etc., stable processing of ultra large structural parts and precision complex parts can now be achieved. The processing accuracy can be stabilized at 0.2 millimeters, and locally it can reach 0.1 millimeters, which is the thickness of an A4 paper, or even more refined. The processing efficiency has also been significantly improved.

Strong milling, shallow cutting high-speed milling, etc. make the processing of titanium alloy parts faster and more stable. The super plastic forming method for titanium alloy sheet metal processing, compressed air stirring for chemical milling treatment, and low current rapid welding for welding are all methods we have developed to tame these fierce horses.

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