Titanium, known as the "third metal" only next to iron and aluminum, has outstanding advantages such as low density, high specific strength, and good corrosion resistance. As a new structural material, it is widely used in various fields such as aviation, aerospace, warship, chemical industry, automobile, sports, and biomedicine. taking nuclear power as an example, as a safe, efficient, and clean energy source, condensers, and heat exchangers are important types of equipment in nuclear power plants. Using seawater or contaminated water as coolant will cause corrosion and abrasion of the types of equipment, make the equipment leak and endanger the safe operation of the plant. titanium plates and strips have become an ideal material for condensers and heat exchangers for nuclear power because of their excellent corrosion resistance, scouring resistance, high specific strength, heat exchange, and other properties.
Development status of titanium plate and strip in China
Titanium and titanium alloys are manufactured into plates, strips, foils, pipes, bars, wires, forgings, castings, and composites after processing. Titanium plates and strips are the most important product type. However, the processing performance of titanium sheets and strips is poor and cutting is difficult. During hot working, it is very easy to absorb impurities such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, at the same time, the wear resistance of titanium sheets and strips is poor and the production process is complicated. Prior to 2007, the industrialized production of domestic titanium sheets and strips was blank. Titanium strip coils totally depended on import, which resulted in high purchasing cost, long period, and unstable quality, which seriously affected the development of downstream application fields of titanium plate and strip and welded pipe.
In recent years, many domestic enterprises have successively rolled hot-rolled and cold-rolled titanium plates and strips, and great progress has been made in the production technology of hot-rolled and cold-rolled pure titanium products, heat treatment technology of strips, and rolling process control technology. with the acceleration of construction of domestic nuclear power and PTA projects and the domestic demand, the demand for thin-walled titanium welded pipe, chemical industry and plate-to-plate titanium plates become more and more strong. In 2020, the output of titanium and titanium alloy plates and strips in China accounted for 59.2% of the total titanium processing materials that year, in the output of titanium coils accounted for more than half. For applications in the field of nuclear condenser and heat exchangers, Titanium coil has outstanding advantages such as high-quality stability, suitable for continuous batch production, short production cycle, and low cost compared with the block sheet. At present, Titanium coil products have become the preferred material for welding pipes and plate heat exchangers for nuclear power.
