Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine March-April 2022

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS MANUFACTURING
MARCH-APRIL 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
look at cost from an end-to-end perspective, even with a potential increase in production cost at the very beginning with titanium, end-to-end it’s a compelling proposition.
“Think about it – whenever you’re going up into orbit, the products are exposed to enormous mechanical forces, not only during the launch but also then being in space. You want to have a material which resists against all these influences – including forces, temperatures, radiation and corrosion – for the longest period possible, because the big challenge for anyone who launches a satellite or other spacecraft into space is that you pay by the kilo.
“With green titanium, you’re getting the titanium proper- ties which are favoured by engineering teams, but you’re now also getting a product which you can afford to use.”
An additional benefit of green titanium is the fact that the key raw material is a locally
Koeck said. “So, this is a huge opportunity to benefit from the natural resources this country has.”
“Matching Australia’s resources with the Titomic tech- nology allows it to be utilised in a way that we haven’t been able to otherwise and allows us to avoid buying from coun- tries that perhaps we might not want to,” Matthew Wall, Boeing Aerostructures Australia Additive Manufacturing Lead echoed. “From a geopolitical perspective I think Aus- tralia is well-positioned to support US large-scale manu- facturing.”
APPLICATIONS
Titanium is already a commonly used material in aero- space. Boeing, for example, already utilises titanium exten- sively across its commercial and military aircraft, including the 737, 787 and 777X.
“I think it’s one of the most well-utilised materials in aero- space,” Wall said to ADM. “This is a great opportunity to create a more sustainable aerospace production system, and particularly the green aspect of it is something that is very attractive to us. I think it’s got a long runway ahead of it.”
While the partnership between Titomic and Boeing sees green titanium’s first use application in space parts – ini- tially JP9102, the ADF’s project to develop a sovereign next-generation military SATCOM capability – it eventu- ally would be used as a substitute for many of the current titanium applications across aerospace.
“The potential applications will become clearer as time goes on as we’re still working through the material perfor- mance – but they’re extensive,” Wall said. “It has the poten- tial for all the applications that titanium is currently used in, and I think that’s where we hope to get to.”
“Boeing sees many possible applications – things that we use titanium on today, things that we use aluminium on to- day, things that we might use carbon on today, whatever it might be,” Paul Watson, Boeing Defence Australia Director of Aerospace Engineering Production added.
Titomic, too, sees significant potential for green titanium as a substitute for other metals, with potential applications expanding beyond the aerospace sector to other areas of Defence.
“As we come in with the opportunity to have great tita- nium available at sustainable prices, and in a sustainable production process, we are seeing high interest from de- fence providers,” Koeck said.
One use case that Titomic is already exploring is ballistic protection panels, for which the predominant material cur- rently used is steel, due to cost.
“We have already made some test samples and gathered some great data,” Koeck explained. “The ballistic panel which we have produced with pure titanium is showing ex- cellent performance compared with metal panels which are currently in use.
“They are much lighter, too, which is a huge advantage because every kilo on a vehicle at the end of the day goes against its cost, its ability and its agility. It’s also a long-term return on investment because the metal panels are exposed in all kinds of harsh environments, [which titanium is more resilient to].”
“WITH GREEN TITANIUM, YOU’RE GETTING THE TITANIUM PROPERTIES WHICH ARE FAVOURED BY ENGINEERING TEAMS, BUT YOU’RE NOW ALSO GETTING A PRODUCT WHICH YOU CAN AFFORD TO USE”
available resource.
There are two main sources
of Titanium-containing mineral sands; ilmenite and rutile, and there are significant deposits of each across much of Austra- lia. In fact, we are estimated to have the world’s largest rutile reserves, at 27 million tonnes, almost half of the world’s total estimated reserves.
Australian titanium mineral sands are currently mined and used for titanium dioxide pigment, however the refinement process where sands are reacted with other chemicals and heated to produce titanium metal is only done overseas, principally in China and Russia. The highly valued Tita- nium metal commodity is then exported globally as both solid metal and as titanium powder. This highlights the substantial opportunity that exists in Australia to add value to our mineral resources, reduce dependency on other na- tions, and generate export opportunities by investing in lo-
cal conversion processes.
“Geopolitical issues globally are preventing US compa-
nies, or the Western world, to go for more titanium and be dependent on those two countries [China and Russia],”
TITOMIC