Proving their metal

Professor Bernd Kieback. The demand for titanium is growing in global markets.

IRL has a distinguished history in the development and application of next-generation materials for New Zealand industries.

Among the products to come out of its advanced materials research are high-strength, corrosion-resistant advanced ceramics for the aluminium foundry industry, energy-efficient cement products for geothermal wells, and nanostructured membrane materials to separate and capture high-value hydrogen gas at high temperature.

Now, IRL’s materials researchers are exploring titanium, applying the knowledge they have gained in other materials to understand how it behaves and how it can be manipulated to produce materials that are useful for the manufacturing industry.

The research will support the fledgling titanium manufacturing industry in New Zealand, which includes Titanox Developments Ltd, a Tauranga company that developed a cost-effective way of producing titanium alloy powders in 2006.

Subsequently in 2010 a new organisation, the Titanium Industry Development Association (TiDA), was set up to promote industrial uses of the materials in new products, including research into applications for these alloy powders.

In June TiDA hosted Germany-based titanium powder metallurgy expert Professor Bernd Kieback, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials, and Director of the Institute of Materials Science, Technical University of Dresden.

He visited IRL and several other New Zealand research and education institutes and signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Fraunhofer Institute and TiDA with a view to project collaboration, strengthening ties between New Zealand’s emerging titanium sector and the institute, jointly developing new and more efficient titanium production techniques for the growing global market and establishing a programme of student exchanges.

Titanium has many advantages as an industrial material. It has the greatest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal, meaning that products made with it weigh little but are very strong.

Another advantage is that it is exceptionally durable and resistant to corrosion.Unlike some other high-performance metals, titanium ore is widely available. In its most common form—rutile or TiO2—it is routinely mined and traded as a common commodity material for the international paint pigment industry.

Globally, the demand for titanium is growing rapidly, with aerospace, marine and industrial applications using
significant quantities. Dr Ian Brown, who manages IRL's Materials and Energy team, says the project is using IRL’s considerable experience in a variety of novel materials for the eventual benefit of the rapidly developing titanium industry in New Zealand.

"We are transferring our knowledge of processing advanced ceramics to titanium. We want to understand how titanium behaves and how it reacts when combined with other materials.

"The ultimate aim is to produce new metal structures that make the most of titanium’s special qualities and have the potential to develop new, high-value-added products in areas such as the biomedical and advanced engineering sectors."