Titanium Standards

Several systems of titanium standards are available for defining titanium alloys, their designations, chemical compositions and mechanical properties.

Like for other metals, the most important standards for titanium are US ASTM and SAE, or more specifically the aerospace part of AMS, European Euronorm, German DIN, Japanese JIS, international ISO, as well as Chinese GB and Russian GOST.

Titanium is able to achieve amazing changes in microstructures by variations in thermomechanical processing, and therefore a broad range of properties and applications can be served with a relatively small number of titanium grades. Consequently, there are about 50 main titanium grades that are designated and currently used, although only a couple of dozen are readily available commercially.

The US ASTM titanium standards recognize about 40 main titanium grades, of which Grades 1 through 4 are commercially pure (unalloyed). The titanium grades covered by ASTM and other alloys are also produced to meet Aerospace and Military specifications (SAE-AMS, MIL-T), as well as ISO titanium standards, Euronorm, GOST, and the Japanese JIS titanium standards. Although there is an overlap between these standards for titanium, they are not interchangeable. The Japanese Titanium Society, in its efforts to achieve a more global approach to titanium standard, has made representations of unified systems of specifications.

However, the major problem with titanium standards is not a lack of standards defined by standards development organizations (SDOs), but the detailed, individual specifications by the aerospace companies which limit production runs. Each aerospace company has its own specification which includes processing routes. Consequently, a process route which is allowed by one company may not be allowed by another.

This results in small batch production. Overproduction can be stored but can only be used by a company which agrees the specification, and the material is probably over-qualified for industrial use having gone through the very detailed quality assurance requirements of the aerospace industry. Similarly, the high proportion of material which results as scrap must be carefully separated in order to provide the detailed pedigree which is required by the aerospace companies.



The Total Materia database brings global metal properties together into one integrated and searchable database. Quick and easy access to the mechanical properties, chemical composition, cross-reference tables, and more provide users with an unprecedented wealth of information. Click the button below to test drive the Total Materia database.

International titanium standards and equivalents at one place: Total Materia

Total Materia provides you with a capability to find information about a titanium standard specification, its current status and materials it defines only one click away.

By simply selecting a Standard Development Organization (SDO) and/or by typing a standard number, you will receive immediate results from the multi-lingual database with over 52,000 standards. To refine the result list for titanium-related standards only, simply type “titanium” into the Description field, as shown in this example for Chinese titanium standards.

Titanium standards: Example for searching titanium-oriented standards from China

You can immediately see a list of standard descriptions (Total Materia has translated critical information from Chinese standards), year of last issue, current status (valid, replaced etc) and a hot link to materials defined by this standard.

By simply clicking the material link, you can view a list of metal materials defined by the selected standard.

Titanium standards: Example of list of titanium standards from China

From the list of materials, you can review detailed properties and equivalents of each material.

Titanium standards: Example of materials defined by the Chinese titanium standard GB/T 3282