Why do so many people choose mirror frames made of this material?
The highlights of titanium eyeglass frames! Why do so many people choose mirror frames made of this material?
At present, pure titanium material is the lightest among eyewear materials, with advantages such as light weight, high hardness, corrosion resistance, allergy resistance, and fatigue resistance.
Nowadays, titanium frames are becoming increasingly popular and have become a fashion trend, especially among mid to high end business elites who highly value pure titanium frames. However, compared to other metal, sheet or plastic eyeglass frames, titanium metal eyeglass frames are more expensive.
01. Advantages of "titanium" materials:
Why are titanium frames more expensive than glasses frames made of other materials?
Firstly, let's learn about the differences between pure titanium eyeglass frames and other materials.
(1) Lightweight, about 40% of stainless steel.
(2) The hardness is high, about twice that of stainless steel and ordinary steel, twice that of iron, and six times that of aluminum. In the ultra-low temperature world, titanium becomes harder and has superconductive properties, while steel becomes fragile and powerless. A titanium submarine made of titanium alloy can dive to a depth of 4500 meters. Generally, steel submarines are easily damaged by water pressure when they exceed 300 meters.
(3) Corrosion resistant and rust resistant. Titanium will not rust after being soaked in the sea for 5 years, while steel will corrode and deteriorate in seawater. Using titanium alloy to manufacture the outer shell of a ship, seawater cannot corrode it. Therefore, titanium is often used to make equipment such as chemical engineering, seawater desalination, power plant seawater cooling, or glasses, watches
(4) Good thermal conductivity, titanium has a thermal conductivity rate approximately the same as stainless steel.
(5) Good tactile sensation, the touch of titanium metal is warm and smooth, without the cold feeling of other metals.
(6) Non allergenic material, titanium is a harmless material for the human body, and because it does not cause allergic reactions to the human body, it is one of the few metal materials used in medicine for the human body (such as artificial tooth roots, artificial bones...)
(7) Titanium can also be used together with nickel metal to make memory alloys with memory function. The car shell made of this "memory alloy" can be restored to its original shape by simply rinsing it with water at a specific temperature in the event of a collision or deformation.
02. The reason why titanium frames are more expensive than other materials frames:
Titanium is not a rare metal, with reserves second only to aluminum, iron, and magnesium, ranking fourth and 16 times the total reserves of copper, nickel, lead, and zinc on Earth.
In theory, scarce resources are the only ones with higher prices. The reason why titanium metal has such a large reserve but is expensive is:
One of the reasons is that the current extraction cost is too high. Nowadays, we all have aluminum pots and pots in our homes, but as early as the 19th century, aluminum was a rare precious metal that was even more expensive than gold. During the reign of Napoleon III in France, a king held a grand feast for his courtiers, all of whom used gold and silver cups. Only this king raised an aluminum cup. Because at that time, the value of aluminum depended entirely on the level of the aluminum smelting industry. With the invention of electrolytic aluminum technology, the production of aluminum has sharply increased, and the price of aluminum has plummeted.
The extraction of titanium today is similar to the extraction of aluminum before the 19th century, with high costs and limited production, so it is only used in some exceptionally important fields, such as aerospace, electronics industry, and precision instruments.