Titanium Becomes a Tool for Russia to Deal With the United States
According to a report quoting an aviation safety expert, the US Boeing company decided to suspend the production of 737MAX aircraft because Russia no longer provides titanium metal to the US aircraft manufacturer. It seems that Russia has found another important tool to deal with Europe and the United States.
Let's see what titanium is. Unlike the inert gas that Russia stopped exporting to the United States and Europe, titanium is not a gas, but a metal. Titanium was discovered by English personality Regore in 1791. It is a silver transition metal, which is characterized by light weight, high strength, metallic luster and resistance to wet chlorine corrosion. However, titanium cannot be used in dry chlorine. Even if the temperature of dry chlorine is below 0 ℃, severe chemical reaction and even combustion will occur.
The hardness of titanium is higher than that of steel. It is very strong and can withstand high pressure. Therefore, titanium is widely used to replace steel in aircraft, space rockets and missiles. Extremely fine titanium powder is also a good fuel for rockets, so titanium is known as the cosmic metal and space metal. Today, titanium is even used to make submarines - titanium submarines. This submarine can sail in the deep sea up to 4500 meters deep.
How scarce is titanium? In fact, titanium is not the most scarce metal, and it ranks around the tenth among all elements. Titanium ores mainly include ilmenite and rutile. More than 30 countries in the world have titanium resources. However, titanium is mainly distributed in Russia, Australia, South Africa, Canada, China and India. Canada, China and India are mainly rock mines; Australia and the United States are mainly placers, while South Africa is rich in rock and placer.
So many countries have titanium resources, why do we say that Russia can be the neck of the aircraft manufacturing industry in Europe and the United States? This is because although many countries in the world have titanium resources, they do not necessarily have the smelting capacity of titanium alloys. Titanium alloy smelting technology is complex and difficult to process. At present, only the United States, Russia, Japan and China have mastered the complete titanium production technology in the world.
Russia has long been the world's largest titanium producer. According to the agreement renewed in November 2021, a company supported by Russia provided one third of the titanium alloy demand for Boeing. However, in March 2022, Boeing said it had suspended the purchase of Russian titanium alloys. Airbus has said that half of its titanium alloy demand depends on Russia.
Take the military aircraft F14 developed by American Grumman company as an example. Titanium alloy accounts for 26% of the structural weight of F14 fighter. Components made of titanium include wing structure, landing gear components, tail structure, small fasteners, springs and hydraulic pipes.
