The Development History of Titanium Element

Author：Time：2023-05-10Return to List

Titanium has become increasingly used in modern industry. So how did titanium develop? Let's briefly introduce it. Titanium was discovered in 1789. In 1908, Norway and the United States began to produce titanium dioxide using sulfuric acid.

In 1910, sponge titanium was produced in a laboratory using the sodium process for the first time. In 1948, the DuPont Company in the United States began to produce sponge titanium in tons using the magnesium process, marking the beginning of the industrial production of sponge titanium.

China's titanium industry started in the 1950s. In 1954, the Beijing General Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals began to study the preparation process of sponge titanium. In 1956, the country listed titanium as a strategic metal in its 12-year development plan. In 1958, sponge titanium industrial tests were carried out at Fushun Aluminum Plant, and China's first sponge titanium production workshop was established. At the same time, China's first titanium processing material production test workshop was established at the Shenyang Nonferrous Metals Processing Plant.

During the 1960s and 1970s, under the unified planning of the country, more than 10 sponge titanium production units represented by Zunyi Titanium Plant and several titanium processing units represented by Baoji Nonferrous Metals Processing Plant were successively constructed. At the same time, research forces represented by the Beijing General Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals were also formed, making China the fourth country with a complete titanium industry system after the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan.

Around 1980, China's sponge titanium production reached 2,800 tons. However, due to insufficient understanding of titanium metals at that time and the high price of titanium materials, the production of titanium processing materials was only about 200 tons, and China's titanium industry fell into a difficult situation. Under these circumstances, the National Titanium Application Promotion Leadership Group, led by then Vice Premier Fang Yi, was established in July 1982 with the support of Zhu Rongji and Yuan Baohua to specifically coordinate the development of the titanium industry. This led to a good situation of robust and rapid development of China's sponge titanium and titanium processing materials production and sales from the 1980s to the early 1990s.

In summary, China's titanium industry has roughly experienced three development stages: the initial stage in the 1950s, the construction stage in the 1960s and 1970s, and the initial development stage in the 1980s and 1990s. In the new century, benefiting from the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, China's titanium industry has also entered a period of rapid growth.