At present, pure titanium is the lightest material in glasses. It has the advantages of light weight, high hardness, corrosion resistance, allergy resistance, fatigue resistance and so on.
Now, titanium frames are becoming more and more popular and have become a fashion. Especially the middle and high-end business elites advocate pure titanium frames. However, compared with other metal, plate or plastic spectacle frames, the price of titanium spectacle frames is higher.
1. Advantages of "titanium" material:
Why are titanium frames more expensive than other materials?
First of all, let's understand the differences between pure titanium spectacle frames and other materials.
(1) Light weight, about 40% of stainless steel.
(2) High hardness, about twice that of stainless steel and ordinary steel, twice that of iron and six times that of aluminum. In the ultra-low temperature world, titanium will become harder and have the properties of superconductors, while steel will become fragile and incompetent. Titanium submarines made of titanium alloy can dive to a depth of 4500 meters. Generally, steel submarines are easy to be crushed by water pressure when they exceed 300 meters.
(3) Corrosion resistant and rust free. Titanium does not rust after soaking in the sea for 5 years, and steel will corrode and deteriorate in the sea. The hull of a ship is made of titanium alloy, which cannot be corroded by sea water. Therefore, titanium is often used to make equipment such as chemical industry, seawater desalination and seawater cooling in power plants, or glasses and watches
(4) Good thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of titanium is about the same as that of stainless steel.
(5) Good touch. The touch of titanium metal is warm and smooth, without the cold feeling of other metals.
(6) As a non allergic material, titanium is harmless to the human body, and because it has no allergic reaction to the human body, it is one of the few metal materials used in medicine (such as artificial tooth roots, artificial bones...)
(7) Titanium can also be made into a "memory alloy" with memory function together with nickel. If the automobile shell made of this "memory alloy" is deformed in a crash, it will restore the shape of the automobile to its original state only by washing it with water at a specific temperature.
2. Reasons why titanium frames are more expensive than those made of other materials:
Titanium is not a rare metal. Its reserves are second only to aluminum, iron and magnesium, ranking fourth. It is 16 times the total reserves of copper, nickel, lead and zinc.
It is reasonable to say that scarce resources will have higher prices. The reasons why titanium reserves are so large but the price is expensive are as follows:
One reason is that the current refining cost is too high. Now we all have aluminum pots and basins, but as early as the 19th century, aluminum was a rare precious metal, and its price was more expensive than gold. During the reign of Napoleon III of France, a king feasted his ministers. All the ministers used gold and silver cups. Only the king raised the aluminum cup. Because the value of aluminum was high or low at that time, which completely depended on the level of aluminum smelting industry. With the invention of electrolytic aluminum technology, the output of aluminum increased sharply and the price of aluminum fell sharply.
Today, the refining of titanium is like the refining of aluminum before the 19th century. The cost is quite high and the output is limited. Therefore, it is only used in some extremely important fields, such as aerospace, electronic industry, precision instrument manufacturing and so on.
The second reason is that the production process of titanium mirror frame is complex. The production of titanium mirror frame needs special processing equipment, special welding technology and electroplating process, many processing procedures and high production cost.
With the emergence of various new refining methods and the improvement and innovation of production and processing technology, titanium will be gradually applied to a wider range of fields.
