Titanium Tubing
Titanium tubing offers superior strength, rigidity, and lightness compared
to tubing made from other metals. Equal to steel in strength, titanium is half
of steel's density and has excellent corrosion resistance. Because of
these properties, titanium offers what is ultimately a cost-effective solution
for many tubing uses, since titanium can hold the same amount of strength as
copper, brass or aluminum with only half the material volume. Because titanium
is resistant to acid, oxygen, chloride and salt corrosion, titanium tubing
results in much lower maintenance and longer product life.
The price of titanium is still high relative to other metals due to the high
cost of fabrication. As titanium never occurs in pure form in nature, titanium
must be extracted from naturally occurring mineral deposits. Refining, tooling,
and processing can also be costly due to titanium's special handling
requirements. Nevertheless, many industries find titanium the best solution
for manufacturing needs, and titanium tubing is widely employed.
Pipes and tubes made from titanium are most often used in heat exchangers,
tanks, process vessels and valves in petro-chemical, agri-food and marine equipment.
Titanium's resistance to corrosion makes it ideal in all these functions,
where fuel line corrosion, valve breakage and chemical leaks would be potentially
dangerous and, with more easily corroded metals, quite common. Defense, aerospace
and marine industries utilize tubing on a daily basis.