American enterprises attach importance to titanium patent technology

American enterprises attach importance to titanium patent technology

American companies attach importance to patented titanium technology and reshape the local titanium supply chain in the United States.

IperionX is a leading developer of titanium products from the United States, dedicated to providing high-quality titanium resources and derivatives for advanced industries such as aerospace, aerospace, electric vehicles and 3D printing. The company owns a number of ground-breaking patented titanium production technologies, such as hydrogen-assisted metal thermal reduction pulverization (HAMR), hydrogen sintering and Phase transformation (HSPT). These technologies can produce low-carbon and fully recycled titanium products, which is extremely important to the development of the domestic titanium manufacturing industry in the United States.

IperionX's advanced titanium production technology has the potential to provide a lower cost and more sustainable supply chain for the domestic titanium raw material supply chain in the United States. IperionX is producing titanium powder from titanium waste at its operational pilot plant in Utah and intends to scale up production at a titanium demonstration plant in Virginia. IperionX holds a 100% interest in the Titan project, which contains the largest JORC compliant mineral sands rich in titanium, rare earth and zircon in the United States.

Application case

In August 2023, Antarctic Bear reported that IperionX had signed an order for titanium metal parts with Lockheed Martin: IperionX uses its powder metallurgy process and advanced titanium powder materials to produce titanium parts for Lockheed Martin - nanjixiong.com). Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company with approximately 116,000 employees worldwide engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and maintenance of advanced technology systems, products and services.

In October, IperionX entered into a partnership agreement with traditional manufacturer GKN Aerospace (GKN uses IperionX for recycled titanium 3D printing - Antarctic Bear 3D Printing Web - Platform (nanjixiong.com)), 100% recycled titanium powder is produced from waste titanium feedstock supplied by GKN Aerospace. Both projects use IperionX's patented hydrogen Sintering and Phase transformation (HSPT) technology, a cutting-edge technology that enhances the microstructure of titanium parts to provide strength and fatigue properties comparable to deformed titanium alloys.
HAMR low oxygen titanium powder preparation technology - breakthrough science and technology

First, a new pulverizing process called hydrogen-assisted magnesium reduction (HAMR) will be introduced. In the powder metallurgy industry, some common metals can be reduced from oxides to metals by carbon (or hydrogen), such as iron, tungsten, cobalt, etc. Titanium dioxide is difficult to prepare by this reduction method, because the Ti-O bond in the TiO2 compound is extremely stable. In 1940, William Kroll invented a process (abbreviated as the Kroll process) to overcome this challenge, which relied on TiO2 being chlorinated in a carbothermic reaction to produce TiCl4, which was then reduced by molten magnesium in a vacuum and distilled to produce titanium sponge (the main metal). The sponge is then vacuum-melted several times to form titanium ingots, which are then hot-processed into rolling mill products.

However, Dr. ZakFang, from IperionX, found in 2016 that TiO2 can be reduced by solid magnesium in a hydrogen atmosphere, because hydrogen can disrupt the stability of the Ti-O bond. This principle also applies to the deoxidation of recycled titanium waste, because the most difficult impurity to "clean" is the oxygen absorbed by the surface, especially as is common in machining waste. As a result, Fang developed a two-step hydrogen-assisted magnesium reduction (HAMR) technique.
Diagram of the main processing steps of the HAMR process. Purified TiO2 used in HAMR can be prepared by alkali roasting, chlorination, or sulfate processes.

There are many advantages to using hydrogen. First, hydrogen helps to destroy the stability of the Ti-O system, increasing the thermodynamic driving force of Mg reaction with Ti-O. Another benefit of using hydrogen is that titanium hydride is formed during the reduction process, instead of titanium metal. It is well known that titanium hydride is less susceptible to oxidation in air than alpha-Ti, which makes it easier to handle the material after reduction and control the oxygen content in the final product. Another key feature of the HAMR process is the use of molten salts, particularly magnesium-containing salts such as MgCl2. It was found necessary to use molten salt to facilitate the reaction and greatly improve the kinetics of the reduction process. The HAMR process uses a deoxidation step to ensure that the oxygen content in the final product powder is sufficiently low, i.e. below the 0.15wt-% required by ASTM-B299-13 for generic Ti. More details of the deoxidation process are described in the next section. The combination of reduction and deoxidation steps, i.e. the method of removing oxygen from TiO2 using these two steps, is one of the key factors in being able to produce a Ti powder with a sufficiently low oxygen content. HAMR has revolutionized the ability to manufacture titanium metal from minerals or waste materials, which was previously unimaginable.