As China's first large aircraft independently developed, the C919 is worthy of our pride. Regardless of whether most of its parts are purchased from abroad, one thing can be beaten abroad.

C919 As China's first large aircraft independently developed, it is worthy of our Chinese pride.

doesn't matter if most of its parts are purchased from abroad, but one thing can be beaten abroad.

That is the amount of titanium alloy on the C919 aircraft, reaching 9.3% of the weight of the fuselage structure, far exceeding 4% of the Boeing 737 and 4.5% of the Airbus A320 in the same class.

This time it is completely pure domestically produced titanium alloy material, which allows us to see the strong strength of Chinese manufacturing behind the domestic large aircraft.

What significance will the high amount of titanium alloy bring?

Titanium History

Speaking of the discovery of titanium, we must start from 1791.

At that time, there was an amateur mineralologist named Gregor in the UK. Once, while he was walking, he found that there was actually some black sand next to the stream, and the sand was attracted by magnets.

at that time he thought it was very strange, so he took them to the laboratory. After some research, he found that there were two kinds of metal oxides in these sands; one was iron oxide , and the other was white metal oxide that he could not recognize.

Although he has read many books, he still cannot find the answer.

4 years later, in 1795, Klaprot, a chemist at Prussian , also found this oxide in the rutile of Hungarian .

He thought this should be a new element, so he named it after Titans in Greek mythology, which is what we often call titanium.

But this is not pure titanium , but titanium oxide. It is not easy to get metal titanium. It is not only very time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also very expensive.

It was not until 1910 that the situation changed.

At that time, a friend named Matthew Hunter from the United States was very knowledgeable about technology. In order to solve a problem, he needed to produce titanium, but he didn't know how to do it well for a while.

So he carried a large jar every day to do experiments. Once, he put titanium tetrachloride and sodium together and heated to 700-800 degrees Celsius. A magical scene of

finally came up with pure titanium with a purity of 99.9%, but only 1 gram, and it was still in the laboratory stage.

A few decades later, scientist William Kroll improved Matthew Hunter's experiments, using cheaper magnesium to reduce titanium, and he could get dozens of kilograms of pure titanium.

to the end of WWII , with the continuous development of technology, people wanted to create some very strong and light aircraft, but what materials are good to use?

After a pause to search for operations, the scientists finally turned their attention to the titanium that Kroll made.

titanium has too many advantages, not only light weight, high strength, but also high temperature resistance. But another question is, is it better to use pure titanium or titanium alloy?

Pure titanium is a silver-white metal, usually with a titanium content of more than 99%, and the rest are some impurities.

, and titanium alloy is an alloy composed of titanium-based added with other elements, such as aluminum, nickel, chromium, copper, etc. With the blessing of these elements, we can ultimately obtain higher strength, corrosion resistance and high temperature resistance.

In this way, titanium alloy is indeed better than pure titanium, so it is also used by various aircraft.

For example, the famous SR71 Blackbird Reconnaissance aircraft in the United States, 93% of the fuselages can reach Mach 3 after 93% of the fuselages are made of titanium alloy. It has reconnaissed information from other countries thousands of times, making hundreds of surface-to-air missiles an air bomb, but it has never been shot down.

China's production of titanium

Although titanium alloy has many advantages, its manufacturing process is relatively complex. If there is a problem in any link, it will be scrapped directly.

So at present, only a few industrial powers can manufacture it. China's domestically produced C919 this time is a powerful proof.

It is worth mentioning that China's sponge titanium and titanium materials have been ranked first in the world, and it has been for many years.

What are sponge titanium and titanium?

The titanium ore produced from nature mainly includes rutile and ilmenite ore as the main raw materials. After ore dressing and enrichment, natural rutile concentrate and ilmenite concentrate are obtained. The extraction process is performed by magnesium reduction and other extraction processes to form porous titanium sponge. After

, sponge titanium is used as the raw material, and after deep processing, it can become the final titanium material, including titanium alloy.

For example, this time, titanium alloy was used in the C919 aircraft. Titanium alloy was used in the front fuselage press plate, nose skin, hanging, central flange strip, tail joint, wing rail and other parts. The purpose of this is to reduce weight.

also uses domestic high-tech titanium alloy materials on the aircraft's engine blade device.

can make the weight of the blade lighter while ensuring the same mass and strength. After a certain comparison and reference after a certain sail, the values ​​such as high temperature resistance and cold resistance are very good.

Some people may be curious that the aircraft is enough to be strong. It can fly and can also achieve various parameters and indicators of flight. Why do you have to fight to the weight loss?

You should know that even if you lose 1 gram of weight to the aircraft, the effect will be very obvious. The overall weight of the fuselage has decreased. After a long period of flight, the energy savings are very considerable.

is like a bird that is too fat and too heavy. If you want to fly, do you need more effort? It requires strong wings and wings to drive it.

In the past, in order to solve the overweight problem of Boeing 787 aircraft, the US government invested $300 million to study the use of titanium alloy to replace aluminum alloy. The effect of

is also very obvious. In the end, the titanium alloy consumption of Boeing 787 body reached 15%, setting a record for the highest titanium alloy consumption of civil passenger aircraft body.

Of course, the amount of titanium alloy used in Chinese aircraft is also increasing, such as this time the C919 aircraft.

Its titanium alloy usage reaches 9.3% of the body structure weight, far exceeding 4% of the Boeing 737 and 4.5% of the Airbus A320 in the same class.

Of course, so many titanium alloy forgings are naturally inseparable from the machines that make them.

For example, a titanium alloy forging joint for C919 weighs 600 kg.

In order to make similar forgings, China built , the world's largest pressure 80,000 tons of hydraulic press, breaking the 51-year world record of the Soviet Union's 75,000 tons of die forging hydraulic press.

Through hot mold forging and isothermal superplastic forming of this thing, it can produce forging parts with higher accuracy, bringing insurance to the strength of the C919 titanium alloy components. How awesome is the 280,000-ton die forging hydraulic press?

just say that, its huge suppression ability is equivalent to pressing 8,000 10-ton trucks onto the size of a desk.

This reminds me of the press that crushed the robot in the movie " Terminator ". If I use this 80,000 tons of pressure, wouldn't it be pressed into an alloy cake? There is no Skynet behind it.

ending

The manufacturing of a good titanium alloy product is not only a test of materials, but also a competition among major powers.

is like the principle of nuclear fission of atomic bomb . It is publicized online, but the only thing that can be done is probably the Five Constant Generals of the United Nations. The same is true for the large

aircraft. How to make more stable and sturdy titanium alloy components? There is no doubt that China is currently fully capable of fighting abroad!