The most widely used titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V, is present in forty-five percent of industrial applications. The unique combination of this alloy's physical and mechanical properties with workability, fabricability, production experience and commercial availability allows it to be economically useful. Some uses of this alloy are aircraft gas turbine disks and blades, airframe structural components, and prosthetic devices. Ti-6Al-4V has become the standard alloy against which other alloys are compared in the process of selecting a titanium alloy for a specific application.
Titanium also is valued in the petrochemical industry, where it is used in heat exchangers and reactors. The automotive industry uses it in automotive components including connecting rods, valves, and suspension springs. The sporting goods industry uses the metal in the manufacture of bicycles, golf clubs, tennis rackets, and wheelchairs designed for disabled people who want to participate in a sport.
Titanium is used in condensers and turbine blades in electric power plants. It is also incorporated into the architecture of buildings, roofs, piping and cable.
Because of its corrosion resistance, titanium and its alloys are used extensively in prosthetic devices such as artificial heart pumps, pacemaker cases, heart-valve parts and load bearing bone or hip-joint replacements or bone splints. Human body fluids are essentially chloride brines with pH values ranging from 7.4 into the acidic range and also contain a variety of organic acids and other media, to which titanium is totally immune.
Since titanium does not become magnetized, it is used in the structural parts surrounding computer components such as disk drives and microchips, which can be ruined by stray magnetism.
Other common applications of titanium include shape memory eyeglass frames, watches and jewelry. Because titanium resists corrosion, is biocompatible and has an innate ability to join with human bone, it has become a staple of the medical field, as well. From surgical titanium instruments to orthopedic titanium rods, pins and plates, medical and dental titanium has truly become the fundamental material used in medicine.
Medical Grade Titanium
Titanium 6AL4V and 6AL4V ELI, alloys made of 6% Aluminum and 4% Vanadium, are the most common types of titanium used in medicine. Because of its harmonizing factor with the human body, these titanium alloys are popularly used in medical procedures, as well as in body piercings. Also known as Gr. 5 and Gr. 23, these are some of the most familiar and readily available types of titanium in the US, with a number of distributors specializing in these specific grades.
Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-6Al-4V ELI offer greater fracture-resistance when used in dental implants. The implant procedure begins with the insertion of a titanium screw into the jaw. The screw resembles and acts like the root of the tooth. After an allotted amount of time has passed for the bone to have grown into the medical grade titanium screw, a fake tooth is connected to the implant.
