Extractive Metallurgy of Titanium: Conventional and Recent Advances in Extraction and Production of Titanium Metal

Dr Zhigang Zak Fang is a Professor in the Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Utah, USA.

Francis H Froes, Ph.D. has been involved in the Titanium field with an emphasis on Powder Metallurgy (P/M) for more than 40 years. He was employed by a primary Titanium producer-Crucible Steel Company-where he was leader of the Titanium group. He was the program manager on a multi-million dollar US Air Force (USAF) contract on Titanium P/M. He then spent time at the USAF Materials Lab where he was supervisor of the Light Metals group (which included Titanium). This was followed by 17 years at the University of Idaho where he was a Director and Department Head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department. He has over 800 publications, in excess of 60 patents, and has edited almost 30 books-the majority on various aspects of Titanium again with an emphasis on P/M. He gave the key-note presentation at the first TDA (ITA) Conference. In recent years he has co-sponsored four TMS Symposia on Cost Effective Titanium featuring numerous papers on P/M. He is a Fellow of ASM, is a member of the Russian Academy of Science, and was awarded the Service to Powder Metallurgy by the Metal Powder Association. Recently he has been a co-author of three comprehensive papers on the Additive Manufacturing of Titanium.

Dr. Ying Zhang is an associate professor in the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IPE, CAS), who joined the faculty in 2011 after the graduation. She graduated from Central South University of China with BS degree in 2006, and received her Ph.D degree from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011 in the research field of metallurgy. From February 2014 to November 2016, Dr. Zhang joined Prof. Zak Fang’s research group in the University of Utah as a Post-doctor, working on the project of titanium metal powder production under the financial support from the DOE of US. Prior to that, Dr. Zhang was in charge of and participated in a few projects supported by either the Chinese government or industries, including NSFC, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Hunan Provincial Science & Technology Department, etc., focusing on the cleaner production of nonferrous metals (including Al, Cr, Zn and Cd). Now she continues her interests in the production of titanium-group metals under the financial support from NSFC as PI. Dr. Zhang has authored/co-authored over 30 publications and over 20 patents.