Titanium and titanium alloys

Abstract

A titanium powder or alloy powder produced by introducing a TiCl4 vapor into a continuum or flowing stream of sodium metal at a velocity not less than sonic velocity of the vapor wherein the sodium is present in an amount greater than stoichiometric sufficient to maintain substantially all the reaction products below the sintering temperature thereof and wherein said Ti powder has a packing fraction in the range of from about 4% to about 11%. The powders without fines have a particle diameter in the range of from about 3.3 to about 1.3 microns based on a calculated size of a sphere from a BET surface area in the range of from about 0.4 to about 1.0 m2 / g.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 08 / 691,423 filed Aug. 2, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,761 and this application is a continuation of the file wrapper continuation application of our previously filed co-pending application Ser. No. 09 / 264,577 filed Mar. 8, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,979 issued Jul. 25, 2002, which was a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 08 / 782,816, filed Jan. 13, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,106 issued Sep. 28, 1999, which was a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 08 / 691,423, filed Aug. 2, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,761 issued Jul. 14, 1998. The disclosures of each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,779,761 and 5,958,106 are incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to the production of elemental material from the halides thereof and has particular applicability to those metals and non-metals for which the reduction of the halide to the element is exothermic. Particular interest exists for titanium ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for producing non-metals or metals or alloys thereof which is continuous having significant capital and operating costs advantages over existing batch technologies.

[0010]Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for producing metals and non-metals from the exothermic reduction of the halide while preventing the metal or non-metal from sintering into large masses or onto the apparatus used to produce same.

[0011]Still another object of the invention is to provide a method and system for producing non-metal or metal from the halides thereof wherein the process and system recycles the reducing agent and removes the heat of reaction for use as process heat or for power generation, thereby substantially reducing the environmental impact of the process.

Problems solved by technology

However, current commercial methods use batch processing which requires significant material handling with resulting opportunities for contamination and gives quality variation from batch to batch.

For both processes, the reaction is uncontrolled and sporadic and promotes the growth of dendritic titanium metal.

The processing of the titanium sponge into a usable form is difficult, labor intensive, and increases the product cost by a factor of two to three.

The processes discussed above have several intrinsic problems that contribute heavily to the high cost of titanium production.

Batch process production is inherently capital and labor intensive.

Titanium sponge requires substantial additional processing to produce titanium in a usable form; thereby increasing cost, increasing hazard to workers and exacerbating batch quality control difficulties.

In addition, the processes generate significant production wastes that are of environmental concern.

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