Structure of Titanium Scrap Recycle System is Expected in Japan

Titanium is limited for used field although it is expected to change from the stainless steel and the demand of it for airplane components and the sea water industry such as plant are increasing suddenly. The biggest problem which it has is price that it is over 10 times compared with the stainless steel. Now, it is expected that the titanium recycling system has the power to clear the problem.Titanium scrap has the problem as the processing capacity because structure of furnace is restricted. If the most diameter of the furnace is at about 1meter, the titanium scrap must be shredded at 1－2 cubic centimeters per diameter which is the same size of the sponge titanium since the titanium scrap is used to mix the sponge titanium.However, the titanium scrap such as the billet end extruded is big size and need the special shredder to shred to 1-2 cubic centimeters. Otherwise, the titanium scrap such as new cutting scrap of the tin titanium bar which is punched by the press is less the volume although it is easy to shred. Consequently, the shred cost would increase.It is difficult that the titanium is recycled in terms of technical and the systematic aspects. But there is the movement that someone improves the recycle rate. In Japan, Vacuum Arc Re-mixing (VAR) way is the major of the titanium mixing way that it use the sponge titanium shredded in pieces. Meanwhile, in the overseas such as U.S. the electric beam mixing way is major. The electronic beam melting (EBM) way can get other material such as tungsten, niobium and vanadium which its gravity is large in the fixing zone in the furnace and can separate off the titanium and other materials. The potential of the EBM furnace is large as the recycle although it has problem such as energy loss compared with VAR way which uses sponge titanium as a main. A Japanese major sponge titanium maker Toho Titanium will introduce the large electronic beam (EB) furnace in the ended of fiscal 2007 and dissolve the titanium scrap from the market or the return scrap from the titanium rolling makers.