To many people, titanium is a mysterious term.
General understanding of the public for this metal is that it is a
very hard substance, and some may know that is very light as well,
especially for folks who own any titanium jewelry or watches. We
would like to clarify some common myths about this metal and give
brief explanation for each one.
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Titanium is a newly found metal
Titanium is new to many industries and recently applied to many new
applications, but the metal was first discovered in 1791, in
England. It was discovered by an amateur chemist in an impure form
called rutile. It was not used widely until the last century because
the technique for extracting titanium from its naturally occurred
ore remained a failure until 1910. It was used in many applications
after it was shown that its alloys can be produced commercially by
reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium in 1940.
Titanium is very hard
It depends. It has to be noted that the metal (chemical periodic
table symbol Ti), is rather soft compare to the commonly known
“strong” version, which is the alloys made from a mixture of
titanium, tin (Sn), aluminum (Al) and vanadium (V). In jewelry
industry, titanium is offered in different grades. The pure titanium
jewelry is much softer than the other two alloys, known as 6Al4V and
6Al4V2Sn. 6Al4V means that the alloy consists of 90% titanium, 6%
aluminum and 4% vanadium.
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Titanium is a precious metal
Quite on the contrary, titanium is abundant on the Earth and not
precious at all. Nevertheless, titanium jewelry is listed among the
precious metals silver, gold and platinum under precious metal
categories. Also, the price range for titanium jewelry is similar to
the precious metals that are actually scarce on the Earth. The
reason is that although the metal itself is abundantly available,
the process for producing titanium alloys is expensive compare to
traditional precious metals. The technology for creating titanium
alloys involves extremely high temperature and vacuum condition, and
tight control of environment to avoid any contaminations. This
drives the prices of titanium jewelry to the range of jewelry just
like gold jewelry. Titanium jewelry is indestructible
Wrong. Even though titanium alloys have high strength and resistant
to wearing, it can be damaged. In fact, it can be worked almost in
the same ways as other jewelry, such as resizing, filing, polishing
and engraving. However, special equipment is needed to do so.
Therefore, in case of an emergency, titanium rings can be cut off
like any other rings, except that some special equipment is needed.
Note that pure titanium jewelry can be scratched and bent just like
gold and silver jewelry. |
Titanium jewelry is hypoallergenic
Right. Titanium alloys are inert and does not contain nickel or
cobalt which most people with more sensitive skin are allergic to.
They will not change color or cause outbreak to virtually anybody.
In short, titanium jewelry is very safe to wear.
Scott Murff got his MBA from MIT business school
and currently is the marketing manager in Titanium Kay that
specializes in
titanium and tungsten jewelry including bracelets and wedding rings.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Murf
