Russia's refusal to provide titanium led to the suspension of production of US 737MAX aircraft
Jun 16, 2022
Russia's refusal to provide titanium led to the suspension of production of US 737MAX aircraft
According to foreign media reports, Boeing decided to suspend the production of 737 MAX aircraft because Russia no longer provides titanium to the American aircraft manufacturer. Russia seems to have found another important tool to deal with Europe and the United States. tool.
Unlike the inert gases that Russia stopped exporting to the United States and Europe before, titanium is not a gas, but a metal. Titanium was discovered by the Englishman Gregor in 1791. It is a silver-white transition metal, characterized by light weight, high strength, metallic luster, and resistance to moisture and chlorine corrosion. However, titanium cannot be applied to dry chlorine gas. Even dry chlorine gas with a temperature below 0℃ will undergo violent chemical reactions and even burn.
Titanium has a higher hardness than steel, is very strong, and can withstand high pressure. Therefore, titanium is used in large quantities instead of steel in aircraft, space rockets, and missiles. Extremely fine titanium powder is still a good fuel for rockets, so titanium is known as a cosmic metal and a space metal. Nowadays, titanium is even used to make submarines-titanium submarines. This kind of submarine can sail in a deep sea up to 4,500 meters deep.
How scarce is titanium? In fact, titanium is not the most scarce metal, and it ranks tenth in scarcity among all elements. The main ores of titanium are ilmenite and rutile. More than 30 countries around the world have titanium resources. However, titanium is mainly distributed in Russia, Australia, South Africa, Canada, China and India and other countries. Canada, China and India are mainly rock mines; Australia and the United States are mainly placer mines, and South Africa is rich in rock and placer mines.
So many countries have titanium resources, so why do they say that Russia can get 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. The smelting technology of titanium alloys is complex and difficult to process. At present, only four countries in the world, the United States, Russia, Japan and China, have mastered the complete titanium industry production technology. China's titanium alloy products are still low-end, and Russia's titanium alloy technology is stronger.
Russia has long been the world's largest producer of titanium. According to the agreement renewed in November 2021, a Russian-backed company provides Boeing with one-third of its titanium alloy needs. 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.
Taking the military aircraft F14 fighter developed by Grumman in the United States as an example, titanium alloy accounts for 26% of the structural weight of the F14 fighter. The components made of titanium include wing structure, landing gear components, tail structure, and small fasteners, springs, and hydraulic pipes.
