Talk:Hunter process

Use of the Hunter process by ICI

The Hunter Process was used to make titanium until the early 1980s at Bain works, ICI Wilton, Teesside. I know because I worked there in the labs as a student in the '70s, and my father was on the staff. Liquid sodium was brought in by special tankers. It was said that much of the titanium metal was bought by NASA, but I can't verify that. Sasha (talk) 22:06, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Hunter process = Armstrong process

Several videos of the so-called Armstrong process circulate the internet; the process is essentially reduction of TiCl
₄ by Na. Can one verify that the two processes are the same or TiCl
₄ is reduced in other vessel instead of a steel bomb as in the Hunter process ? -- Mountainninja (talk) 21:27, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

I came across this .pdf article, published on the ASM_International_(society) website. It explains the differences between the various processes, and that the Armstrong Process is an adaptation of the Hunter process designed for continuous rather than batch production. It confirms what I was told at ICI, that they used the Hunter process because it yielded a higher quality product. Sasha (talk) 13:13, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Who did what?

My sources (Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Ind. Chem.) indicate that Hunter invented the reduction of TiCl4 by Na to Ti. This approach was made obsolete with the reduction by Mg, i.e. Kroll process. My source discusses the carbothermic reduction of TiO2 in the presence of chlorine without apparent attribution. Maybe that is Hunter too, not sure. --Smokefoot (talk) 22:43, 17 July 2014 (UTC)