Cheap titanium

John Smith :

Titanium ore is available all over the world. It's a very common
element.
Titanium ore costs only pennies per pound. It's almost literally dirt
cheap.
....
Which doesn't have anything to do with putative shortage of titanium
itself.

I digress somewhat, but has there been a major leap recently in the
general ability of industry to process and machine titanium?

I ask because I've noticed a lot of car parts being made out of titanium
at prices that seem impossibly cheap. Also a lot of very cheap watches
with titanium cases, and a lot of tools also with titanium casings or
parts.

Yes there is a new process, see:

http://www.britishtitanium.co.uk/ffc_process.htm

Earl Colby Pottinger

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Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

John Smith :

I digress somewhat, but has there been a major leap recently in the
general ability of industry to process and machine titanium?

I ask because I've noticed a lot of car parts being made out of titanium
at prices that seem impossibly cheap. Also a lot of very cheap watches
with titanium cases, and a lot of tools also with titanium casings or

parts.

Yes there is a new process, see:

http://www.britishtitanium.co.uk/ffc_process.htm

I don't think that process is commercialized yet. From what I can judge,
British Titanium is still workin the kinks out at the pilot level.

Paul

Paul F. Dietz wrote:

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

John Smith :

I digress somewhat, but has there been a major leap recently in the

general ability of industry to process and machine titanium?

I ask because I've noticed a lot of car parts being made out of
titanium
at prices that seem impossibly cheap. Also a lot of very cheap
watches
with titanium cases, and a lot of tools also with titanium casings
or

parts.

Yes there is a new process, see:

http://www.britishtitanium.co.uk/ffc_process.htm

I don't think that process is commercialized yet. From what I can
judge,
British Titanium is still workin the kinks out at the pilot level.

Paul

If I was a shareholder in British Titanium, I would be very concerned
at this point. Their patent must be at least 5 years old now, and their
process has yet to be adopted by any commercial enterprise. Apparently
they were in negotiations with the mining conglomerate BHP Billiton a
couple of years ago. If that deal had gone ahead then we probably would
be seeing a lot of cheap titanium in the near future, but unfortunately
it fell through because BT wanted too much for rights to use their
process.

As you mentioned, there are problems that need to be ironed out, in
particular an inexpensive way of converting crude ore into a high
purity titanium dioxide feedstock. At the moment the purification is
carried out by converting the ore into titanium tetrachloride, which is
a volatile liquid that can be purified by distillation. The purified
TiCl4 could then be converted into titanium dioxide (which is the raw
material for the FFC process), or it could be converted directly into
titanium metal using the existing Kroll process. A large part of the
high cost of titanium comes from producing TiCl4, so the FFC process
will give little if any cost savings until a way is found to purify
TiO2 without using TiCl4 as an intermediary. This is where someone with
expertise in mining and processing ores (such as BHP Billiton) could
have proved very useful.

The other problem with titanium is that it needs a completely different
set of manufacturing techniques than more commonly used metals such as
steel. I'd imagine very few manufacturers will bother with it until it
costs less than stainless steel, and even then, it will probably take
several years at least until it is widely used.

Unless the British Titanium shareholders do something radical like sack
the management of their company and replace them with people with some
business sense, I think the FFC process will remain a laboratory
curiosity until the patent expires (or BT runs out of cash and is
forced into liquidation). The inventors of this process could have made
a fortune from it, but thanks to incompetent management they probably
won't make a penny. Fairly typical of British inventions.

Hugh

around for reference).
Bake at 400°for about 25 minutes -
or you could fry them in olive oil.
Place the meatballs in the tomato gravy, and simmer for several hours.
Serve on spaghetti.
Accompany with green salad, garlic bread and red wine.



Newborn Parmesan

This classic Sicilian cuisine can easily be turned into Eggplant Parmesan
If you are planning a vegetarian meal. Or you could just as well use veal -
after all, you have to be careful - Sicilians are touchy about their young
family members...

6 newborn or veal cutlets
Tomato gravy (see index)
4 cups mozzarella, 1cup parmesan, 1cup romano
Seasoned bread crumbs mixed with
parmesan
romano
salt
pepper
oregano
garlic powder
chopped parsley
Flour
eggwash (eggs and milk)
Peanut oil for frying.

Pound the cutlets.
Dredge in flour, eggs, then the bread crumb mixture.
Fry till golden brown in 350° peanut oil.
In a baking pan, place a layer of gravy,
then one of meat, gravy, and cheese.
Another layer each of meat, gravy, and cheese.
Then bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
Serve on hot pasta with romano cheese.



Southern Fried Small-fry

Tastes like fried chicken, which works just as well.
In fact you may want to practice cutting up whole chickens
for frying before you go for the real thing.
Whole chicken is much more efficient and inexpensive than buying pieces.

1 tiny human, cut into pieces
2 cups flour
Onion, garlic
Salt
pepper
garlic p

:

Unless the British Titanium shareholders do something radical like sack
the management of their company and replace them with people with some
business sense, I think the FFC process will remain a laboratory
curiosity until the patent expires (or BT runs out of cash and is
forced into liquidation). The inventors of this process could have made
a fortune from it, but thanks to incompetent management they probably
won't make a penny. Fairly typical of British inventions.

Then why are there more Titanium products on the market today?

Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

Earl Colby Pottinger writes:
Yes there is a new process, see:

http://www.britishtitanium.co.uk/ffc_process.htm

Their home page also has an interesting note:

British Titanium plc (BTi) is delighted to announce to shareholders that
a Notice of Intent (in effect, an entry for a competition) submitted to
the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in partnership with
Florida Institute of Technology and NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the
development of an in-situ resource utilisation process to produce oxygen
on the moon from lunar regolith has been successful.
...
On 16th November British Titanium was informed by NASA's Exploration
Systems Mission Directorate that their proposal was "among the best
received and has been selected for award".

Kinda cool ...

-Miles
--
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten. [George Carlin]