THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
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NFWYORK • SAN FRANCISCO • LOS ANGELES • CHICAGO
4530
C&EN REPORTS: National M e t a l s Conference a n d Exposition
Lower Price Would Make Titanium Ideal Chemical Equipment Material Pilot plan studies now under w a y will make for quick application when price is no longer prohibitive CLEVELAND.—Titanium manufacturers are not yet ready to promote actively their product Lor chemical applications, h u t t h e chemical companies arc busily testing the metal in pilot plant installations. Most titanium displayed at the 35th National Metal Congress and Exposition here October 17 to 23 was fabricated into jet engine parts; however, its unique corrosion resistance1 seems to ensure its use for chemical equipment when the price drops. Several large chemical concerns are known to b e conducting studies to determine economical application at several lower price levels. Even at the present high price it might he* desirable in certain places, such as critical valves, w h e r e downtime for maintenance is to h e avoided at almost any cost. If the price drops a little, titanium will find more uses; if it drops considerably it will become one of t h e chemical engineering profession'* major materials of construction. Titanium tubing in sizes up to 1.5 inches is being offered by Superior T u b e . Superior spokesmen are elosemouthed about their customers and the end uses of their product. They d o say that the t u b i n g is being bought in small quantity and is apparently b e i n g tested in pilot plants of one type or another. Polyethylene. One of the difficulties met in the manufacture of polyethylene has been t h e stainless steel tubing necessary for the tubular reactors for this high pressure process. The pressures, said to be on the order of 30,000 p o u n d s p e r square inch, require special e q u i p m e n t . Slight irregularities in the surface of t u b ing used at ordinary pressures are n o t important; however, for such high pressures a very smooth internal surface is n e e d e d to prevent r u p t u r e . Several companies in this country who are entering t h e polyethylene field under license from Imperial Chemical Industries have considered using tubing of European manufacture. Babcock & Wilcox, according to their representative, J. J. B. Rutherford, h a s now perfected tubing of type 410 stainless a n d of the 4130 nonstainless which is satisfactory for use in polyethylene manufacture. Oreatest difficulty with t h e 4130 material is its tendency to contaminate the reactants. Zirconium and Beryllium. Zirconium is presently kept pretty much under wraps by its chief user, the AEC. T h e r e is no reason to believe that it will not some day be added to t h e list of metals available for special metallurgical uses. It has been
CHEMICAL
Viewing an experimental reactor head m a d e by Pfaudler at the 35th National Metal Congress & Exposition. H e a d is titanium supplied b y Rem-Cru Titanium found that the addition oi a small amount of tin is an aid to preparing rolled zirconium. Beryllium is another metal gradually finding its way into applications other than those1 d e m a n d e d by A E C . Beryllium manufacturers claim that copper-beryllium alloys could be used for a n y chemical equipment ordinarily requiring copper, and Cu-Be's superior hardness should make it preferable. Titanium analysis, an isotopic method of analyzing titanium for oxygen using oxygen-18, was described by A. I). Kirshenbaum, T e m p l e University. T h e method is also applicable to zirconium. A known amount of the metal to be tested is mixed with a known weight of metal or metallic oxide* containing a previously determined amount of oxygen-18, together with enough graphite to convert all the metal to carbide, are heated above the melting point for one or two hours. A second heating, in a vacuum, produces carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide which can he analyzed by the mass spectrograph to determine the ratio of natural to isotopic oxygen. T h e ratio in the gases is the same as that in the mixture of sample and labeled standard. Calculating back enables one to determine t h e oxygen content of the original sample. T h e oxygen content of titanium and zirconium has an important effect on the physical properties of the metals. A little oxygen increases hardness a n d brittleness and decreases workability.
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