METALS: Fiasco in Titanium?

One of the Government's most costly and coddled cold-war babies was its crash program to mass-produce titanium, the "wonder metal'' that is lighter than steel and tougher than aluminum. To get the metal for supersonic planes, the U.S. gave out some $215 million in federal loans, stockpile-buying contracts and research grants that helped boost production of titanium sponge from 75 tons in 1950 to 14,000 tons last year. More than 90% of the 1957 output was bought by the Government. But last week the Government and producers alike were willing to concede that titanium had fallen short of everyone's high hopes for it. Complained a vice president of a titanium-producing steel company: "Titanium is the greatest fiasco in metallurgical history. It draws gases to it like flies to flypaper. The cost is forbiddingly high, and the strength-to-weight ratio is not everything it's cracked up to be."

Other titanium makers thought this was too pessimistic, even though the government-aided titanium sponge plants are running at about 50% of capacity. Sales of finished mill products will edge up from last year's 5,100 tons to 6,000 or 7,000 tons this year, but will fall well below the 11,000 tons earlier predicted for 1957. Said the president of the No. 2 fabricator, Mallory-Sharon Titanium Corp.'s James A. Roemer: "There is no question that we will be capable of producing more titanium in 1957 than we will sell."

Seeking protection in a softening market, Mallory-Sharon announced a merger with National Distillers & Chemical Corp. to form the world's largest integrated producer of titanium and its lightweight cousin, zirconium. National Distillers will bring to the merger its new $24 million plant for titanium and zirconium sponge and a cushioning $22,650,000 Atomic Energy Commission contract for zirconium, which is used in reactors. More important, National has found a way to slash the sponges' high cost by using liquid sodium instead of magnesium in the reduction process. Together, the two companies hope to have enough resources (assets: $55 million) to cut costs and to develop civilian uses for the metal whose military market is being cut back.

Bugs. The titanium industry was born with the jet age. To reach a goal of 15,000 tons of titanium mill products by 1957 (an amount that will not be needed for years), the Government encouraged five companies to start making the metal. Shoved along too fast, the untried metal soon developed many bugs. The first unalloyed titanium proved too brittle in aircraft; it tore easily, and fatigued at temperatures above 900°F. One 200,000-lb. batch was thrown out because it was-too hard to machine. Titanium parts in engines failed in flight.

Yet the Defense Department and aircraft manufacturers doggedly kept solving these problems, figuring that tomorrow's planes and missiles would bring forth a huge demand for the wonder metal.