The JRC releases two certified reference materials to ensure the quality of titanium
19 November 2018The JRC produced two Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) for the quality control of alloying and trace elements in titanium. This CRM supports correct analysis of the chemical composition of titanium, which has to meet tight specifications for its use in e.g. medical implants or aerospace applications.
Titanium
is an important raw material for medical devices, the aerospace, automobile and
chemical industry. It competes with steel, aluminium and other metals in
several industrial applications due to its chemical and corrosion resistance,
strength and relatively low specific weight. Specifications with regards to chemical composition of titanium have to be tightly controlled for many applications, from medical implants to airplane construction. Certified Reference Materials are important tools to ensure the reliability of such control measurements.
Based on input from the user community, the JRC tasked a metal producing company to spike pure titanium with 25 different elements that are important to define the quality of titanium. The resulting titanium rods were turned into titanium discs and titanium chips to suit the needs of different analytical techniques. Further studies demonstrated that the added materials were homogeneously distributed in the material. The certified values were determined in an interlaboratory comparison comprising 11 laboratories mainly in the European Union, but also the USA and Australia. In total, methods based on eight different measurement principles were used to demonstrate that the assigned values are independent of the measurement method.
Based on the data obtained, certified values for 17 elements were assigned. In addition, indicative and information values for 6 more elements were assigned. A detailed report on the production of the two reference materials ERM-EB90a (titanium discs) and ERM-EB090b (titanium chips) is available via JRC's online catalogue. The CRMs can be obtained directly from the JRC or its authorised distributors.
« Back to overview