Boeing/Airbus fishy titanium? Came from a Chinese state-run supplier.

[thewayne]

Sadly, the article may be paywalled and I haven't found an alternative yet. I'll update with a new link if I find another source.

From the article, "A memo from a distributor of the suspect metal, Titanium International Group (TIG), states that the Italian company bought it from AVIC Shaanxi Hongyuan Aviation Forging Co. (HYFC), a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corporation of China. And a letter to suppliers from the Italian aerospace and defense company Leonardo says that TIG told Italian authorities that the company can’t verify the origins of titanium sourced from HYFC as far back as 2016."

The pervasiveness of the questionable metal is wider than just Boeing and Airbus, TIG has also sold to helicopter makers. While there has been evidence of corrosion, there have been no reported crashes due to it, at least as of yet.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2024/06/18/a-chinese-state-company-supplied-suspect-titanium-used-in-boeing-airbus-planes/

Comments

[disneydream06]

Crap product from China?
Imagine that. :o
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[moonhare]

Yeppers. For as much as the company I worked for wanted to get orders out the door, they respected the chain of custody premise for all raw materials and sub-vended hardware and processes.

Heh, not titanium but MONEL… we had a vendor supply forgings for submarine main shaft seals and they were required, for traceability, to serialize each piece as “001, 002, etc”

We received a dozen or so pieces, from different raw material lots, serialized as either 001 or 002. I forget the outcome (I was on the aerospace side).

[thewayne]

Oh, wow!  I joke with my wife that every piece of equipment for the telescope is serial number 001, and it's not far from the truth.  Just about every instrument is custom built for the telescope.  One, TripleSpec, they made like six of them for different telescopes that they were buying in to.

[silveradept]

Proving that you don't have to be avowed capitalists to seek to create unethical situations.