Homemade Sintering Titanium

I am reading electric current sintering of titanium dioxide powders in few seconds. Titanium dioxide powder kilogram goes from 5 dollars. It is same electric usage or less compared with 1 kilogram 60 euros worth of carbon composite cooking.
You can produce small pieces and cover a skeleton like a mirror covered Pakistani bus , sure we need bigger pieces.
If someone find a way to produce titanium pieces with short burst of electric for marine use , it would be a revolution.
It is not very important to create visually appealing things , there can be even holes , dents , bumbs in the material.
I read pressure increase the quality but i m thinking a basic apparatus.
Look at www.koman.org , here is my favorite sculptor Ilhan Koman working on
metal.
And may be it would be possible to sinter these powders with a torch.
I want to discuss this also , it is less dangerous , cheap .
This second technology is at bronze machine parts production.

Best ,

Mustafa Umut Sarac

Istanbul

 

Hi Mustafa,
did they leave your kennel door open again?
I´m dead sure your "Soviet yard" :http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/look-soviet-manufacturer-cylinder-steel-boat-27527.html
can answer your questions!?

 

I am not sure if it is electric charge based, I think it is laser beam, but you can look up 3D printing, there is even one open source 3D printer that can use titanium dioxide, and the commercial 3D printers are dripping in price quite rapidly.

 

I have a friend who works for a watch / electronics company - I know they used "sintered" (spelling?) 3d-printing for prototype casings. very nice looking pieces but doubt they were cheap.

Mustafa - I read the book by Bombard about crossing Atlantic with small rubber boat. Didn't seem like much fun. Also you wanted to go to Chile so east coast of South America is not good enough - Cape horn is kind of a ***** I hear...

regarding this thread:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/bo...il-no-radio-currents-planktons-sun-27526.html

 

only generaly interested i see them now allready at £795
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/

 

What are you intending to do with sintered titanium that will have bumps and holes? I can't see the marine application for that.

 

Titanium is highly reactive with many common chemicals, it gets microscopic corrosion you can not see that will weaken the part internally until a surprise failure. I have seen it on aircraft parts, that were not in as a corrosive environment as your typical boat.

Without reliable near 100 percent density and testing, I too can not see a marine application. Better stick with known materials and methods and allow others with big money to pioneer new construction methods.

 

I really hate resurrecting old threads, but this came up early on in a search for titanium sintering so I thought I would correct it... Sorry.

Titanium sintering with titanium oxide doesn't produce titanium metals. It can be used to create titanium oxide ceramics, but these have drastically different properties than titanium as a metal.

For titanium metal sintering you start with commercially pure titanium (typically CP1).


The expensive part of titanium manufacturing is actually the conversion of titanium oxide into pure titanium. Which requires driving out the oxygen. Typically through either involved chemical processes, or the application of huge electric currents. I can't say it would be impossible to perform at home, but it requires the titanium to cool in an entirely oxygen free environment until it drops below 800 degrees F.