As an important metal material, titanium plate has a wide range of applications in many fields. This article will introduce the production process of titanium plates in detail, including hot rolling, cold rolling, and subsequent finishing treatment.
What is the process of manufacturing titanium plates?
1. Hot-rolled titanium plate production process
Hot-rolled titanium plate is mainly made of continuous casting slab or initial rolling slab as raw material. After these raw materials are heated by a step-type heating furnace, the surface oxide scale is removed by a high-pressure water descaling device and then enters the rough rolling mill for preliminary rolling. The head and tail of the material after rough rolling are cut off, and then enter the finishing mill for computer-controlled rolling. After final rolling, the titanium plate is cooled by a laminar cooling device and coiled into a straight roll by a coiler.
The head and tail parts of the straight roll are often tongue-shaped and fishtail-shaped, and the thickness and width accuracy is relatively poor. The edges often have defects such as wave shape, folded edge, and tower shape. In addition, the coil weight of the straight roll is heavy, and the inner diameter of the titanium tube is usually 760mm, which is suitable for use in the pipe-making industry.
To obtain higher quality hot-rolled titanium plates, straight coils need to be processed by finishing lines such as head cutting, tail cutting, edge cutting, and multiple straightening and flattening. The treated titanium plates can be further cut or re-rolled to become hot-rolled titanium plates, flat hot-rolled titanium tubes, longitudinally cut strips, and other products. If the hot-rolled finishing coils are pickled to remove the oxide scale and oiled, they can become hot-rolled pickled coils.
2. Cold-rolled titanium plate production process
Cold-rolled titanium plates are made of hot-rolled titanium tubes. After pickling to remove the oxide scale, they are cold-rolled. The product after cold rolling is hardened coils. Due to the cold work hardening caused by continuous cold deformation, the strength and hardness of the hardened coils increase, while the toughness and plasticity index decreases. Therefore, the stamping performance will deteriorate and can only be used for parts with simple deformation.
Hardened coils can be used as raw materials for hot-dip galvanizing plants because hot-dip galvanizing units are usually equipped with annealing lines. The coil weight of cold-rolled titanium plates is generally between 6 and 13.5 tons, and the inner diameter of titanium tubes is 610mm. To improve the performance of cold-rolled titanium plates, continuous annealing (CAPL unit) or bell furnace annealing is usually required to eliminate cold work hardening and rolling stress and achieve the mechanical performance indicators specified in the corresponding specifications.
The surface quality, appearance, and dimensional accuracy of cold-rolled titanium plates are better than those of hot-rolled plates, and their thickness can be rolled to about 0.18mm, so they are deeply loved by users. Cold-rolled titanium tubes are used as substrates for deep processing to produce high-value-added products, such as electro-galvanized, hot-dip galvanized, fingerprint-resistant electro-galvanized, color-coated titanium coils, vibration-damping composite titanium plates, PVC-coated titanium plates, etc. These products have excellent qualities such as beautiful appearance and high corrosion resistance and have been widely used.
3. Finishing treatment
After annealing, cold-rolled titanium tubes need to be finished, including cutting heads, and tails, trimming, leveling, flattening, rewinding, or longitudinal shearing plates. These treatments can further improve the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of titanium plates to meet the different needs of users.
4. Application Fields
Hot-rolled and cold-rolled titanium plates are widely used in automobile manufacturing, home appliances, instrument switches, construction, work furniture, and other industries. The weight of each package of titanium plate after bundling is 3~5 tons, and the weight of the flat coil is usually 3~10 tons/coil.
In summary, the production process of titanium plates includes hot rolling, cold rolling, and subsequent finishing treatment. Each link has its specific process requirements and quality control standards to ensure that the quality and performance of the final product meet user needs.
