CORROSION COMMENTARY

TITANIUM—PRICE AND VALUE. TITANIUM is now well‐established as a structural material in the aircraft industry because of its unique strength/weight ratio. But its outstanding resistance to most forms of chemical attack makes it a good material for the construction of plant employed in the chemical, petroleum, textile and pulp‐making industries, with one drawback—the price. When stainless steel is considered at 5s. per lb., titanium at £5 per lb. for sheet and considerably more for wire and tube appears at first sight quite out of the question as a substitute material of construction. However, if we examine the problem a little more closely, the apparent disparity between the two materials is not, in effect, so great as is first thought. For example, titanium is half the weight of stainless steel, strength for strength, so a fairer price comparison would be 50s. to 5s., or 10 to 1. Then, the more complicated the item the cheaper relatively is the cost of a titanium product, because the high price of the pure metal becomes less important in machining and fabrication costs which would be common to both stainless steel and titanium.