[TheForge] Titanium

[David E. Smucker]

No question the Russian's had a lot of titanium.  The largest mill building 
I have ever been in (and I have been in some BIG ones) housed 56 vacuum arc 
refining units for titanium.  They each worked a billet about 24 inch 
diameter and 20 feet long. The units were vertical with an arc struck 
between the end of the billet and ground inside of the vacuum unit.  This 
melted the titanium and the impurities move to the outside and could then be 
machined off when solid and cool.  This was done 2 or 3 times depending on 
the purity level required.  The first pass was started with titanium sponge 
that hand been compressed in a forging type operation.

At the time I was told by some NASA engineers that the USA had 5 of these 
type of units.  They also had some very modern rolling mills for the 
production of titanium plate and sheet.  There was tons and tons of titanium 
scrap on this site.
Interesting along with all of this very modern equipment we were taken 
though an area filled with old America and British steam hammers -- dating 
from well before WWII most from the early 1900's. (Blacksmithing content.) 
I have no idea of when these forging hammers were moved or purchased by the 
Russians but my guess is that they came off of the used equipment market.

We did supply them some aluminum rolling mills built by United during WWII. 
They then built many copies of these mills without the word United cast into 
the housings.  But the titanium mills were built by a different group and 
had much better technology than their aluminum mills.  The aluminum group 
and the titanium group did not seem to talk to each other -- stuff was too 
"secret".

Dave Smucker
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chuck Robinson" <robi5515 at bellsouth.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Titanium


> The stories I heard about their construction techniques were pretty 
> awesome.
> The Titanium sub hulls were welded, single pass, in an inert gas facility.
> The welders supposedly wore a type of space suit when the were working on 
> the sub.
> On the other end of the spectrum, after the break up, I was investigating 
> the possible purchase of Titanium pressure hulls for deep ocean oceanic 
> instrumentation..
> The company I was talking to, said no problem they would forge out a solid 
> billet of Ti and core drill it to spec dimension. They had a very large 
> supply of Ti.
> Chuck
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ries Niemi" <rniemi at fidalgo.net>
> To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 1:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Titanium
>
>
>>
>> The russians made several subs out of titanium- I think most have been 
>> decommissioned, though. Giant irradiated hunks of death- I am pretty sure 
>> the biggest sub ever made was one of the titanium subs.
>> http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/705.htm
>> The russian titanium industry was built to supply these, and their space 
>> program. When the USSR crashed, cheap titanium from russia flooded the 
>> market, and all kinds of stuff became available in titanium that was just 
>> out of the question before- bike pedals and ballpoint pens.
>>
>> ries
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Manage membership or unsubscribe at:
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
>> theforge mail list group photo site is
>> http://www.photoaccess.com
>> Login:  blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
>> password:  anvil
>> ___________
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Manage membership or unsubscribe at:
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> theforge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.photoaccess.com
> Login:  blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
> password:  anvil
> ___________
>
>
>