Titanium is a metallic element valued for a high strength-to-weight ratio, strong corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility — properties that make it denser than aluminum but usable in thinner sections, a weak (but real) electrical conductor, and the material of choice for aerospace structures and medical implants alike. The sections below answer the specific questions that come up most: what it’s used for, its boiling point, how it compares to aluminum by weight, whether it conducts electricity, and where to source raw stock.
What Titanium Is Used For
Titanium’s core properties — high strength relative to its weight, resistance to corrosion, and compatibility with the human body — drive four main application areas:
- Aerospace and defense. Aircraft airframes, landing gear, hydraulic tubing, jet engine turbine blades, and spacecraft components. Titanium alloys handle high operating temperatures while staying light — the SR-71 Blackbird, built to survive sustained Mach 3+ flight, is roughly 93% titanium by construction.
- Medical implants and devices. Hip and knee replacements, bone plates and screws, dental implants, spinal hardware, and pacemaker casings. Human bone will naturally fuse to titanium over time (osseointegration), and the metal resists corrosion from bodily fluids — the combination is why it’s the default material for load-bearing implants.
- Pigments and consumer goods — as titanium dioxide, not metal. The single largest use of titanium by volume isn’t the metal at all: titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a bright white pigment used in paint, plastics, paper, sunscreen, and toothpaste. It’s easy to see “titanium’s biggest use” statistics and assume they’re about metal parts — they’re almost always about this compound instead.
- Industrial and chemical processing. Titanium’s resistance to saltwater and strong acids makes it a standard material for desalination equipment and offshore/marine hardware exposed to corrosive environments.
Key Properties: Boiling Point, Density vs. Aluminum, Electrical Conductivity
| Property | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Boiling point | 3,287 °C (5,949 °F / 3,560 K) | Consistent across all sources checked — no discrepancy |
| Melting point | 1,668 °C (3,034 °F) | For reference; titanium stays liquid across a wide range before boiling |
| Density | ~4.51 g/cm³ | Compare: aluminum is ~2.70 g/cm³ |
| Electrical conductivity | Roughly single-digit percent of copper’s conductivity | Sources disagree on the exact multiple — see note below |
Is titanium lighter than aluminum? No. By volume, titanium is about 67% heavier than aluminum (4.51 g/cm³ vs. 2.70 g/cm³) — two identical-size blocks of each metal, and the titanium one weighs noticeably more. The “titanium is lightweight” reputation comes from its strength, not its density: because titanium is so much stronger relative to its weight, engineers can design a part with a thinner cross-section or less material and still meet the same strength requirement. The finished part can end up lighter than an aluminum equivalent — the raw material itself is not.
Is titanium conductive? Yes, but poorly. Titanium conducts electricity because it’s a metal, but its electrical resistivity is roughly 40–56 μΩ·cm at room temperature — high enough that different sources calculate its conductivity at anywhere from about 3–4% to 10–12% of copper’s, depending on which copper baseline they divide against. Don’t treat any single one of those multiples as an exact spec; the consistent takeaway across sources is that titanium’s conductivity sits in the low single-digit-to-low-double-digit percent range relative to copper, not that it’s a strong conductor. The same weak conductivity shows up in heat transfer too — titanium’s thermal conductivity (about 21.9 W/m·K) is roughly 1/18th of copper’s, which is part of why heat builds up at the cutting edge instead of dissipating through the part when machining titanium. This same high resistance is put to deliberate use in a few niche applications — vaporizer heating coils and anodized jewelry both exploit it.
Where to Buy Titanium
The right source depends on three things you should settle before shopping: form (sheet, plate, round bar, tube, wire, or finished part), grade (commercially pure Grade 2 vs. an alloy like Grade 5 / 6Al-4V), and quantity (a single DIY-sized piece vs. mill-quantity stock for production).
- Hobbyist / small-quantity / DIY: Online metal retailers (Online Metals, Online Metal Supply) sell custom-cut sheet, round bar, and plate with no minimum order requirement — the practical starting point if you need one piece, not a production run. Specialty sellers like Rio Grande carry thin, formable sheet aimed at jewelers doing anodizing work.
- Industrial / aerospace / medical-grade bulk: Stocking distributors (TMS Titanium, Titanium Industries, Supra Alloys, A-1 Alloys, Tiger Titanium) supply mill products — pipe, tubing, heavy block, cut-to-size bar and plate — for production runs in aerospace, medical device, and automotive manufacturing.
Before sourcing, it’s worth confirming the part actually needs titanium’s strength-to-weight ratio or corrosion resistance rather than being over-specified — given the density and cost premium over aluminum or steel (see the comparison above), titanium is usually the right call only when one of those two properties is the actual design driver, not a default choice.
Related reading: Cobalt vs. Titanium Drill Bits: What’s the Difference? — a different topic (tooling, not raw metal), but a common point of confusion when searching “titanium” in a machine shop context.
