Titanium and titanium alloys have excellent resistance to corrosion in sea water and ocean atmospheres. They are the most suitable materials for the manufacture of ship parts and marine facility structures: propeller propellers, submarine whip antennas and shells, seawater pipelines, condensers and Heat exchangers, acoustic systems, fire-fighting equipment, etc. are all titanium and titanium alloys. The applied alloys mainly include: industrial pure titanium, Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-6Al-4VELI, Ti-6Al-2Nb-1Ta-0.8Mo, Ti-3Al-2.5V, etc. In addition, Ti-Ni shape memory alloys are used in submarines to make welded pipe joints.
The Soviet Union is the world leader in the use of titanium alloys to manufacture submarines and nuclear submarines. It is also the first country to use titanium alloys to manufacture deep-sea pressure-resistant titanium alloy shells. In the most years, the amount of titanium alloy thick plate and thick wall pipes is nearly 10,000 tons, accounting for 1/3-1/2 of the output of titanium alloy that year. Titanium alloy has various properties for manufacturing shells: high strength performance, excellent fatigue resistance, non-magnetic, and can withstand depth bomb explosion shock waves. Titanium alloy has good thermal conductivity, which is good material for manufacturing submarine heat exchangers .
The steam engines, heat exchangers, condensers, etc. of the atomic power (nuclear power) ships of the Soviet era were made of stainless steel. They often had problems, such as leakage, corrosion, and frequent accidents. Later, they were made of titanium alloy. These problems have been resolved, and the engine service life has been extended twenty to thirty times.
In 1973, the first all-titanium fishing vessel jointly was 12.5m long, 2.8m wide, and had a total mass of 4.6t. The hull was welded with 2.5mm thick titanium alloy plates. The all-titanium fishing boat is light in weight, corrosion-resistant, is easy to clean with attached marine organisms, and requires less maintenance. So far, there are more than 20 titanium alloy fishing boats in Japan.
The working conditions of the pumps, valves, and piping systems of ships and ships are extremely harsh. The service life of copper and stainless steel pipelines is only 2 to 5 years. After using titanium and titanium alloy pipelines, the service life is doubled. Shaanxi Lasting Titanium Industry Co., Ltd. has provided batches of titanium and titanium alloy materials and made outstanding contributions to the development of marine industry and marine facilities.