TITANIUM FACTS:

T i t a n i u m , one of the latest and ' hottest ' metals used in the jewelry trade. Do you know all the important facts about Titanium?

As one of the largest and most successful supplier of Titanium, Titanium with Gold, Titanium with Platinum Wedding Bands and Partner Rings and due to the ever growing popularity of our Titanium 'Sports Ring Collection ', please find the following general informative facts about Titanium.

We are sure that this will help you answer some of your customers questions, while this 'high-tech metal' becomes the universal metal of this millenium:

Titanium is a multifunctional material, securing its future in a steadily growing market. Where other other materials fail, Titanium is a real solution. Initially exclusively used in aerospace, Titanium today is employed in a wide range of applications:

defense industry (aerospace <airplanes, satellites>, submarines, tanks etc)
medical engineering (human implants: joint replacements < hip, knee, shoulder> , dental implants, bone fixation materials, surgical instruments)
chemical industry
automotive industry ( brake- and exhaust systems)
offshore industry
optical industry
architecture
sports equipment (bicycles, golf clubs)
the jewelry industry

The unique and exceptional properties of Titanium make this possible. These excellent properties include the highest ratio between strength and density of all metallic structural materials, extreme mechanical and thermal loading capacity, extreme high tensile strength, stronger than steel but 42% lighter. Its high corrosion resistance, particularly against oxygen, its tissue-compatibility and vital and elastic attributes make it extremely biocompatible.

In a nutshell: Titanium is light, strong, corrosion-resistant and biocompatible.

All this gives Titanium, its established uses and ever emerging applications, great prospects far beyond the New Millenium!

Further important information:

A. Raw material: Titanium is not an exotic material. As the 22nd element "Ti" in the periodic table, it is not a rare natural deposit but rather the 9th most common element accounting for 0.6 % of the earth's crust

B. Commercially pure or alloyed Titanium: since the introduction of a viable and reliable method for extracting Titanium from its ore in the early 1950s, several Titanium-base materials have been developed to satisfy customers´ specific needs. These can be divided roughly into two categories:

1. Commercially pure Titanium (c.p. titanium) composed of > 99.2% Titanium plus elements such as oxygen, nitrogen & carbon. We generally distinguish between 4 grades of commercially pure titanium which greatly depend on their oxygen content: DIN 37025 (Ti 1), DIN 37035 (Ti 2), DIN 37055 (Ti 3), DIN 37065 (Ti 4). Commercially pure Titanium displays already a very high tensile strength - between 290 and 740 N/mm_ = 42.000 - 107.000 psi; pound per square inch -, the Brinell hardness value varies between 120 and 200. Pure Titanium is preferred by the jewelry industry. Pure forms of Titanium are more hypo-allergenic and have proven to be a good combination of workability and longevity. We are using DIN 37035, grade 2. (Ti 2) commercially pure Titanium - it contains 999/1000 parts Titanium

2. Titanium alloys, i.e. Titanium containing 2 - 20% or more aluminum, vanadium, tin, chromium and/or zirconium. These alloys are especially preferred by the defense industry. A lesser purity of Titanium, generally increases strength. The alloy contents need to be increased + other elements are added: Aluminum, Tin, Molybdenum, Chromium, Vanadium, Zirconium, Silicon and Iron.
Important Note: Some current Titanium alloys contain less than 80 % Titanium. The purity effect, always a strong selling point for the jewelry business, gets watered down. Commercially pure Titanium is already the strongest substance used in the jewelry business, why use Titanium alloys? Especially companies selling via the Internet are focusing on these Titanium alloys, calling them 'aircraft grade' Titanium. Please be aware that these alloys implement greater difficulties in cutting, milling, sawing and drilling.

C. Manufacturing Titanium: the manufacture of Titanium from ore to mill product comprises three main steps:

1. Reduction of Titanium ore (rutile, ilmenite) to a porous form of Titanium metal called sponge
2. Melting of the sponge, plus alloying elements in the case of alloys, to form ingots
3. Forming of ingots either via slabs into general mill products or via intermediate shaping into rods or open-die forgings.
The first two stages are specific to Titanium; ingots are converted into semi-finished products by forging and rolling processes similar to those used for steel

D. Working with Titanium:

A certain degree of know-how as well as metalworking experience is required. Titanium can be joined to other Titanium parts or to different metals. Titanium is also ideal for inlay work. Soldering, brazing and welding are possible, however, this takes great care and very costly and proper equipment. Soldering requires heat sources such as acetylene torches, high-frequency induction coils, infrared heaters, inert gas electric arcs with graphite or tungsten electrodes and in some individual cases resistance heating using a spot welding machine or heating in muffle furnaces in an argon atmosphere as well as high-vacuum furnaces, especially for hard-soldering. Argon with a degree of purity of 99.99 % should be used as protective gas. If a vacuum or inert gas atmosphere is not used, for soft-solder for instance, fluxes are needed to dissolve the oxide layer and prevent further gas pickup. Titanium's great affinity for atmospheric gases (oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen) rules out all welding processes in which the molten metal could come into contact with these elements. Therefore, oxyacetylene welding is not possible. Primary fusion welding processes involve to be carried out in an inert gas atmosphere (TIG and MIG welding).

The cold forming of commercially pure Titanium materials can only be done within limits. This is due to the fact that -at room temperature- Titanium's hexagonal crystal structure lattice has only one slip direction, and mechanical twinning also results in only slight slipping. For reductions between 2 - 5 %, it is recommendable to heat materials between 200° C - 500° C. Higher reductions require higher temperatures. The ratio of yield-point to tensile strength Rp0.2 to Rm is relatively high. A high degree of elasticity is to be expected, resulting in pronounced springback, especially after cold-working.

E. Use in the Jewelry Industry:
It is possible to process Titanium by all methods used in the manufacturing of jewelry: sawing, punching, filing, milling, planing and drilling. Within the jewelry trade, due to the lack of necessary equipment, Titanium though, is typically not soldered. For ring sizing purposes, compression and stretching, is a frequently used method. Due to the pronounced springback (memory effect) after cold-working Titanium, ring-sizing is only possible for styles in all Titanium and also within great limitation, excluding pieces that are joined with other metals. Investment cast Titanium, so far, has been limited to the production of watch casings in large quantities. Anodizing Titanium, which is a special surface treatment used to achieve variations of attractive surface colorations, has been a popular trend about ten years ago. Due to Titanium's extreme strength, workability has been limited to companies with a solid basis of knowledge and experience in Titanium metal-working while expensive high-tech machinery and equipment remains a constant necessity.

COGE Design Group's Titanium rings are carved from one compressed solid piece of Titanium. This block is first drilled and then put on a lathe for further machine tooling. Our rings remain at all times an internal circle, a circle not meant to be broken. We strictly use commercially pure Titanium, as a solid metal or in combination with Gold or Platinum. German engineering guarantees impeccable quality. All rings are carved with a rounded inside, thus always comfort-fit. Especially appealing are the brushed/shiny combinations, whereas the polished surfaces of Titanium display a specific and quite attractive metallic luster. Titanium diamond tension-set rings are the latest introduction.
People who 'understand' Titanium, love it for its unusual grey color, extreme strength, lack of weight and overall appearance.

The positive attributes and properties of Titanium rings make them also ideal for outdoor use. Comfortably worn as the indestructible partner ring or just worn as the ' backup ring ' during sports activities. Titanium rings are also worn by single people who simply want to wear jewelry, having understood the complexity of Titanium, its properties and required high-tech manufacturing process.

For any occasion, a Titanium ring will serve its purpose for a lifetime and beyond.

Platinum - Gold - Titanium - Stainless Steel

Setting standards for the new Millennium!
Sincerely yours,

C O G E Design Group