Too Strong to Break, Too Light to Care: Meet Titanium

Too Strong to Break, Too Light to Care: Meet Titanium


The Discovery: A Metal Hidden in Plain Sight

Titanium wasn’t discovered in a secret lab by a man in a cape. Instead, it quietly entered the scientific stage in 1791, when amateur British mineralogist William Gregor noticed a strange black sand in Cornwall. He named the metal "menachanite." A few years later, in 1795, the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth independently discovered the same element in a different ore and gave it a more cinematic name: Titanium, after the Titans of Greek mythology. You know, the powerful pre-Olympian gods who didn’t mess around.

     

But naming something after gods doesn’t make it easy to work with. Titanium remained more theoretical than practical for over a century. It was hard to isolate. It bonded with everything. It laughed in the face of fire. It was basically the middle schooler of the periodic table.

 

A Metal That Hates Compromise (and Oxygen)

Pure titanium isn’t found just lying around. It’s always locked in minerals like ilmenite and rutile. Separating it is like trying to unsend a text—technically possible, emotionally exhausting.

Kroll’s samples of titanium metal in 1938, via Kroll 1955

The real breakthrough came in the 1940s with the Kroll process, which replaced older, more hazardous methods. It used magnesium to reduce titanium tetrachloride into metallic titanium. Voilà! A lightweight, corrosion-resistant, high-strength metal was finally industrially viable. And just in time, too—because World War II was knocking, and the aerospace industry needed materials that could take a punch without adding pounds.

Why Titanium is the Metal of the Future (and the Now)

Titanium is strong like steel but 45% lighter. It resists corrosion like a champion—whether it’s in seawater, sweat, or space. It doesn’t play well with oxygen at high heat, which makes it tricky to weld, forge, or cast—but once you figure it out, you’re holding onto something almost eternal.

 

That’s why it’s used in:

  • Jet engines and airframes

  • Biomedical implants

  • Deep-sea submersibles

  • Spacecraft

  • Luxury watches, jewelry, and accessories (hey, that’s us!)

Titanium, But Make It Beautiful

Unlike other metals that need painting, plating, or faking, titanium reveals its colors through anodizing. By varying voltage in an electrolyte bath, we manipulate the oxide layer on its surface. The result? A dazzling array of interference colors—no dyes, no coatings, just pure optical sorcery.

 

When layered and forged with other grades of titanium (or metals like zirconium), we get Timascus—a psychedelic, durable, ultra-light material perfect for objects that want to be both functional and unforgettable.

The POSAN Perspective

At POSAN, we embrace titanium for both what it is and what it isn’t. It’s not easy. It’s not cheap. It doesn’t forgive mistakes. But in return, it offers unmatched longevity, featherlight comfort, and visual stories that never fade.

Whether we’re sculpting a 40-piece case from solid titanium or coaxing rainbow layers from a billet of Timascus, our aim is always the same: to make the improbable wearable.

References and Further Reading

  1. Donachie, M.J. "Titanium: A Technical Guide." ASM International, 2000.

  2. Froes, F.H. "Titanium: Physical Metallurgy, Processing, and Applications." ASM Handbook, 2015.

  3. Kroll, W.J. "The Production of Ductile Titanium." Transactions of the Electrochemical Society, 1940.

  4. Hurlen, T. "The Discovery and Early History of Titanium." Chemistry & Industry, 1986.

  5. Surface Engineering Group. "Anodizing of Titanium Alloys." Materials Performance, 2019.

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