The characteristics and application scope of titanium alloy containers and titanium equipment

Titanium materials feature high hardness, light weight and corrosion resistance. Due to their superior properties and characteristics, they are made into titanium equipment and widely used in many fields such as industry and chemical engineering.

Titanium has stronger corrosion resistance in many media than stainless steel, aluminum, etc. Moreover, titanium is light in specific gravity and high in specific strength.

(1) Titanium is prone to form a dense titanium oxide passivation film on its surface in air and oxidizing, neutral aqueous solution media, which significantly shifts the electrode potential of titanium positively and greatly enhances its thermodynamic stability.

(2) Titanium does not have the low-temperature brittleness problem like ferritic steel. Titanium can be used in low-temperature containers with temperatures as low as -269 degrees.

However, since austenitic stainless steel, aluminum, copper, etc. can also be used in low-temperature containers and are cheaper than titanium, titanium is rarely used in low-temperature fixed containers in practice. In aviation and aerospace, titanium is used in mobile low-temperature containers. The key lies in taking advantage of the high specific strength and light weight of titanium.
(3) In chlorine-containing media such as seawater and salt water, carbon steel, low alloy steel, common stainless steel and aluminum all have poor corrosion resistance. However, titanium has unique and excellent corrosion resistance. About 50% of titanium containers are used to resist the corrosion of chlorine-containing media.
(4) Since the corrosion resistance of titanium is due to the surface oxide film, common industrial pure titanium and titanium alloys are not corrosion-resistant in strong reducing media such as high-temperature hydrochloric acid. Ti-32Mo is resistant to hydrochloric acid corrosion, but its plasticity and processability are poor. It has not been included in the standard for titanium materials for pressure processing, nor has it been included as titanium for containers in this standard.
(5) Under certain conditions, titanium may cause combustion, explosion or stress corrosion in media such as fuming nitric acid, dry chlorine gas, methanol, trichloroethylene, liquid dinitrogen tetroxide, molten metal salts and carbon tetrachloride, which can lead to serious accidents in titanium containers. Titanium containers should avoid or use these media with caution.
(6) Titanium will burn in pure oxygen with a temperature exceeding 500 degrees or in air with a temperature exceeding 1200 degrees. Therefore, titanium containers must not come into contact with open flames when exposed to air and oxygen to prevent them from burning.
(7) Titanium materials and titanium containers generally do not require the assessment of impact toughness.
Titanium has excellent corrosion resistance. Among them, industrial pure titanium TA1 and TA2, over 90% are used in civilian industries to make various titanium equipment, and three quarters of these titanium devices are used to make titanium containers. Therefore, titanium containers play a crucial role in China's titanium industry.