MELBOURNE 2016: Futures for Low-Cost Titanium Metal & 3D-Printing

摘要

A couple of papers presented on the second day of the March 2016 conference highlighted the potential of such new technologies. Dr Kartik Rao (of Metalysis) discussed his company's suite of processes which could reduce the price of titanium metal by 75%. Given the superior strength/weight ratio of titanium, such a development would probably enable titanium to substitute for aluminium and maybe also substitute for stainless steel. Currently, global consumption of aluminium is around 40 million tonnes (worth $US 90 billion) and the global consumption of stainless steel is around 33 million tonnes (worth $US 110 billion). Metalysis has a long-standing ambition to build a $US 500 million commercial-scale plant, for which synrutile will be the oxide source, generating titanium powder that could be readily used as the "ink" for 3D-printing of complex metal components. Iluka has a financial stake of nearly 30% in Metalysis and Iluka has been closely collaborating with Metalysis on the specifications for the synrutile feedstock that would be used.