This topic deals with the process chain from titanium ore extraction and processing to semi-finished products. This includes ore mining, beneficiation and processing and alloy production by melting and remelting, casting or sintering, ingot and powder production as well as the production of semi-finished parts like bars and plates. All these topics including achievements in related production technology are addressed in this topic.

Additive manufacturing of CP-Titanium, titanium alloys and titanium aluminides with a focus on research, development and industrial applications is discussed in this topic. The topic addresses the development and the optimisation of powder bed-based titanium additive manufacturing and direct energy deposition processes. Well-established and sophisticated post-processing operations to improve the quality of additively manufactured parts and repair technologies will be discussed in this topic as well.

In this topic, near-net shape production is discussed including casting or forming of CP-Titanium and titanium alloy parts as well as sintering operations like metal injection moulding, fast filament fabrication or plasma spark sintering. Modern near-net shaping technologies can help to reduce machining operations as well as titanium scrap production which is addressed in this topic as well.

In this topic, thermomechanical processing of titanium-based materials is addressed. After ingot or semi-finished part production, thermomechanical processes are typically applied to adjust the dimensions, the microstructure and properties of the resulting semi-finished products. Improvements in well-established processes as well as latest developments in thermomechanical processing in laboratory and industry scale are discussed in this topic.

The topic is dedicated to titanium part production from semi-finished products. Titanium conventional part production includes forming processes like forging, rolling or swaging, machining including minimum quantity lubrication and cryogenic processes and joining. The latest developments regarding new processes adapted to the different titanium alloys as well as improvements of existing processes are discussed in this topic. 

Alloy development is of high significance in the application of titanium-based materials. In addition, after semi-finished part production, well-tuned post processing is needed to optimise the microstructure and properties. This topic addresses latest achievements in titanium alloy development as well as microstructure and property optimisation by the application of dedicated deformation processes and (multistep) heat treatments for alloy homogenization, recrystallisation and ageing of existing and newly developed alloys.

Analysing and reducing the environmental impact during the titanium life-cycle from ore extraction to application and titanium recycling is of high importance in the titanium industry. Titanium production is energy consuming and expensive since the current method of extraction of titanium from the ore includes smelting, chlorination and reduction. Therefore, cost reduction is one of the driving factors for titanium research to broaden its field of application. This could be achieved by life-cycle analyses, the development of more energy efficient production processes and titanium recycling.

Digital material development and manufacturing of titanium alloys as well as multi-scale modelling of titanium are addressed in this topic. Developing new materials and processes by a conventional experimental approach remains a slow and expensive process requiring validation at the lab-scale prior to any form of process scale-up. Consequently, a long-term development cycle for safety-critical applications is required. By a combination of machine learning, materials modelling and experiments, alloy and process development could become much faster. Related work will be presented in this conference topic. In addition, titanium-related simulations at different length scales from density functional theory and molecular dynamics to more macroscopic simulations of parts as well as material modelling are to be discussed in this topic.

Long-term research was carried out at intermetallic TiAl alloys and metal-matrix composites (MMC) prior to their application in safety-critical parts. Latest achievements in research on titanium-based intermetallics and MMCs are addressed in this topic including process development and industrial applications. Coatings and latest achievements in related production technologies will be discussed in this topic as well.

Application of titanium and titanium alloys in harsh environments (e.g. application at cryogenic or elevated temperatures, corrosive environments, oxidising atmospheres etc.), interactions of titanium with natural environments, environmental degradation, water and waste management are to be discussed in this topic.

The largest consumer of CP-Titanium and titanium alloys is the aerospace industry, in which the demand continuously increases. In modern aircrafts, the amount of titanium (mainly applied in airframe structures and aircraft engines) can reach 15% of the airplane weight. Latest achievements related to aerospace applications are addressed in this topic.

Biomedical and healthcare applications of titanium and titanium alloys include osteosynthesis, implantology, cardiovascular products, orthopaedic wires, medical and surgical instruments as well as medical aids and assistive devices like wheel chairs and walkers. In medical engineering, a broad variety of titanium alloys (from CP-Titanium to highly β-stabilized and shape memory alloys) as well as different product forms (e.g. wires, tubes, bars and plates) are used. All these medical applications including fundamental research and latest developments will be addressed in this topic.    

Besides aerospace and biomedical applications, large consumers of CP-Titanium and titanium alloys are the marine, offshore and chemical industry. Additional applications can be found in the deep-sea, nuclear and the automotive sector as well as in sports, architecture, arts and the leisure industry. Latest achievements and new applications are discussed in this topic.