Titanium Sponge for Aerospace & Defense Market Size

Titanium Sponge for Aerospace & Defense Market Size

Titanium Sponge for Aerospace & Defense Market size was pegged at USD 1,452.8 million in 2017 and is estimated to exhibit around 4.3% CAGR from 2018 to 2024.

Inherent properties of Titanium (Ti) alloys that include high strength to weight ratio, high corrosion resistance, have in turn led to substantial increase in the utilization of these materials for extensive applications. These applications prominently include aviation industry, propellant tanks for satellites and launch vehicles, inter-tank structures, gas bottle/liners, interface rings for satellites, armor plating and landing gear. Integration requirement of alloys in the structure for optimum performance improvement of these systems is expected to fuel the titanium sponge for aerospace & defense market demand.
 

Commercial aircraft manufacturers are among the chief consumers of the Ti foam owing to its requirement for the manufacturing of fuel usage frames, floor beam, wing connections, nacelle engine mounts, fuselage components, thrust reversal units, seat rails, components for auxiliary power units, metal fasteners, and door frames. Requirement of conventional commercial aircraft models ranging from 12 to 50 metric tons is expected to increase to 80 to 110 metric tons in the upcoming models contributing to increased Ti metal to weight ratio of the aircraft. This is expected to provide potential growth landscape for titanium sponge for aerospace & defense market over the forecast period.
 

According to Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management by Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Brazil), Titanium is the fourth most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. However, the utilization of the metal is not comparable the other metals in use due to the difficulty of extraction from the core and processing for commercial applications. Moreover, owing to this the overall capital requirement for the manufacture of ingots is 30 times the requirement for steel, or 6 times the cost of aluminium. This is among the prominent factors influencing the choice of metals for utilization in the aerospace engines and components, is expected to hamper the titanium sponge for aerospace and defense market.
 

Polymer matrix composite (PMC) compatibility is among the prominent factor impacting the development and designing of aircraft owing to increasing utilization of composites for the aircraft structures. Unlike carbon, aluminium, and its low alloy steels that generate high galvanic potential, Ti is galvanically compatible with the carbon fibers in the PMC, which makes it a critical requirement for the structure development. Moreover, the unit pricing of the foam has witnessed significant decline over the past few years, is expected to present strong growth landscape over the coming years.