Titanium drinking straw for $ 900 Bashny.Net

One blogger told the fascinating story of the origin of titanium and where it is used.
But this information in order to understand whether the titanium straw costs $ 900.




I live in Russia - I difficult than a surprise. Recently I came across news of a series of "their morals". In the US there is a singer Beyonce, like it absolutely everything: this year even sang the national anthem at the inauguration of Barack Obama. Soul diva goes on a world tour with an impressive rider. For example, the toilet paper in the restroom Beyonce should be extremely red. In the dressing room one must have alkaline water and titanium (!) For drinking straws cost $ 900 each. What confused me the news?



Titanium straw can cost $ 900! Or still can? However, titanium metal at all mysterious: start with the fact that he was a priest opened. English pastor William Gregor in his spare time was fond of chemistry. Once he became interested in black sand deposits which were close to the parish. After manipulation of the sulfuric acid has allocated Gregor sand oxide of an unknown metal. In parallel with the pastor in 1795 by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth isolated from the mineral rutile metal which called titanium.

Mineral consists of Rutile titanium and oxygen



See, titanium was discovered almost simultaneously by two different people, living far away from each other. This is a fairly common case for the great inventions: to take even a light bulb or radio. It seems no one doubts that the metal was named after the Titans of Greek mythology characters. However, there is another version: German Klaproth gave the name of his discovery through Titania - the queen of the fairies in Germanic mythology. This is due to the ease of metal. In any case, it is comparable in strength with the best brands of steel, but it is easier to nearly double.

Bar crystalline titanium



Production of titanium metal on an industrial scale began only after the Second World War. In the early XX century, titanium oxide was used as a white paint. During the First World with the help of metal create smokescreens. Now titanium is used almost everywhere: in the aviation and rocket (sheathing, fuselage, engines), Navy (submarines diesel engines), artillery (mortar base plates). In the textile industry, titanium is an excellent bleach fabrics. Remember "Liquid Robot" from "Terminator 2", where the bullet holes were pulled together? Titanium alloy with nickel is interesting because it has a "memory". After deformation the heated titanium returns to its original shape. This amazing property has been used in medicine. From NiTi make, for example, special rehabilitation gloves intended for reactivation muscles with functional impairment. Metal with "shape memory" helps and surgery to remove the bumps on the toe: the defect is corrected metal bracket.

Hollywood directors in their own understanding "shape memory»



Titanium is one of the ten most common in the crust of the chemical elements, but at the same time is not cheap - this limits its use. This is due to the high cost and complexity of production. The Chinese lucky: they are the richest deposits of titanium raw materials, Russia is in second place. But for the production of titanium metal we lead. Russia's only producer of this metal is a corporation "VSMPO-Avisma", located in the town of Verkhnyaya Salda (Sverdlovsk region) and Berezniki (Perm region).



70% of "VSMPO-Avisma" is exported. The company provides up to 35% of the needs in titanium companies Boeing, 65% - the group EADS, which includes Airbus. In fact, in the world there is no aircraft manufacturing company, using titanium, which is not worked would VSMPO. Contract with a major aircraft manufacturers world Russian company failed largely due to the corporation Rostec. In 2007, "VSMPO-Avisma" became part Rostec, a year before the state has established control of the company suffers from the conflict in the board of directors. I told all this when I went to Verkhnaya Salda in an unforgettable trip.



During the crisis Rostec managed to keep the entire staff of the titanium giant, and after - the volume of production is constantly increasing. Last year, VSMPO have been several major events. Firstly, Rostec sold titanium management companies, its conclusions from the crisis, about 46% of the shares. And secondly, "VSMPO-Avisma" 10% surpassed its historic maximum, releasing about 29, 5 thousand tons of metal. By 2015, they plan to produce 40 thousand tons of titanium per year. I propose that round figure mark Beyonce concert in Verkhnyaya Salda - we titanium tubes for drinking much cheaper.

Source: egor-lavrentiev.livejournal.com