The Sexiest Metal 535
jonerik writes "Denver's weekly Westword magazine has this article on titanium and the attempts to break it out of its traditional aerospace/defense industry niche, including its growing use in architecture, computers, jewelry, sports, knives, cars, medicine, and other areas. The upside: It's as strong as steel but weighs half as much, it doesn't rust, and it's fairly plentiful. The downside: It's expensive compared to steel and aluminum and its high melting point makes it difficult to work with under some conditions. Still, it's nice to see it being used in other applications." Heck, I know someone who used it as his wedding ring. Pretty cool, actually.
Ti wedding rings (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the blue titanium oxide looks great. I have questions about the oxides durability in the long run. Fortunatley I don't have to think about the rings durability.
Does anyone out there have one of these?
I am partially made of Titanium (Score:2, Interesting)
My only complaint is it aches after a hot shower or bath, anyone have any scientific reason for why this would be?
soviet relics (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:sci-fi reference (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember somethign from high school science class about plain old titanium being quite brittle, you can actually crumble titanium ore with your hands. The only thing that makes it twice as strong as steel is making an alloy out of it with some other metal(s). The thing I never found out is: what other metals do you mix it with to make the alloy?
used to make the world's coolest building (Score:2, Interesting)
i love the total lack of right angles in that building. simply beautiful.
Ti rings = bad news if injured (Score:2, Interesting)
TRUTH :Titanium popular only because of discovery (Score:1, Interesting)
Basically titanium dioxide (a common white powder used in paint and found all over this planet) was found in an amazing discovery to be able to be turned into pure titanium by dipping it in a hot salt and using electricity.
The titanium dioxide is shaped into a cathode in a fused salt cell and under an applied current, the oxygen leaves the oxide as oxygen ions, diffuses to the anode, where it is discharged. The titanium metal is simply left behind and at no stage in the process is the titanium in the liquid or ionised state. This is the major difference with the previous processes. Furthermore, as the titanium is not deposited from the salt, it is relatively inert. Another very surprising observation was that although titanium dioxide is an insulator, it acts as an efficient cathode. The reason for this is that as soon as a minute amount of oxygen is removed, the material becomes an electronic conductor that allows the electrochemical processes to take place. The overall process is that an insulating oxide is made the cathode in an electrochemical cell and the oxygen is extracted to leave pure titanium.
Its a miraculous discovery and though now titanium is dirt cheap... it is still unworkable into finished products. This makes it expensive because machining it is difficult.
It used to be that the material was expensive.
Apple rushed into the fray first with its use of titanium on its flagship computer products.
I wish people would stop acting like titanium is sexy and hot merely because of a fashion fad... its current popularity is soley based on an amazing discovery.
Re:Titanium Glasses (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, but beware of scams (Score:3, Interesting)
It had 'platinum' inlays. After a couple of days my wife got a rash. Now, she wears a titanium watch all the time, so she's not alergic to that. She also has been wearing the platinum engagement ring for several months, so she's not alergic to that either. She is however alergic to tons of other metals, like white gold (or the nickel they use in it).
When she contacted the company, all they said was, ok, return them, insisting that it was real titanium & platinum. To be fair,- they did refund us promptly, but the ease at which they did it makes me suspicious.
What I'm trying to say is, how do you know for sure that things are actually made of the material you are paying for? I guess especially when you buy stuff online it's pretty risky.
And it kind of sucks to have to return your wedding rings
Welding? (Score:5, Interesting)
But it's mighty durable once it's together.
Jewelers have a tool for this (Score:3, Interesting)
To remove it the jeweler had a tool with a flat bit that slid between the ring and the finger and had a cutting wheel (like a dremel cutting disk) that cut through the ring. The bit that slid under the ring was aligned with the cutting wheel so that when you went through the ring you didn't start cutting flesh.
The ring was then resized and re-fused to be a continuous ring. I'd guess that cutting is a last resort and that cut rings might have been resized by actually adding material to make them bigger rather than just stretching them.
IIRC the cutting part was hand actuated, but with the safety "backstop" I see no reason other than heat that it couldn't be mechanically operated.
Re:Titanium is also very flexible. (Score:2, Interesting)
I got a set of Ti sporks, great for pasta and anything with rice or slippery seafood in it.
Re:Exactly! It sure rocks in aerospace though! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ti Wedding Ring? (Score:5, Interesting)
TiO2 and self-cleaning glass (Score:3, Interesting)
Car windows treated with TiO2 on the outside would literally burn off the gunk that gets on them (insects, bird splats, hydrocarbon grunge) in the sunlight, staying clean.
There has even been talk of using this in medical surfaces (exam tables and O.R.s) - when you are done, flood the area with some UV and burn the microbes off the surface.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Ti
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Tension settings... (Score:2, Interesting)
I gotta ask... (Score:2, Interesting)