Seamless and welded titanium tubes are widely used in a variety of heat exchanger applications worldwide. These applications cover many industries such as steam turbine power plant, refineries, chemical plants, air conditioning systems, multi-stage flash distillation, desalination and vapor compression plants, offshore platforms, surface ships and submarines, as well as swimming pool heating systems. The popularity of titanium tubes results from several fundamental reasons:

1. Excellent Corrosion Resistant

Due to the high affinity of titanium to oxygen and moisture in the air, a highly stable, tenacious and permanent thin oxide film (TiO₂) forms on the metal surface and immediately regenerates after being damaged. This property explains the excellent corrosion resistance of titanium to a plurality of harsh environments such as oxidizing chloride solutions, acetic and nitric acids, wet bromine, and acetone. Titanium is further very stable in formic, citric, tartaric, stearic, and tannic acids. Alkaline environments up to pH 12 and 75°C usually offer no problem for titanium. Titanium is used in areas in which austenitic stainless steels no longer provide sufficient corrosion resistance.

For heat exchangers in which the cooling medium is seawater, brackish water, or polluted water, commercially pure titanium tubes have demonstrated their superior corrosion resistance for decades. Usually titanium requires no corrosion allowance, so often the higher up-front costs are compensated soon by less down time and reduced maintenance costs.

2. Proper Mechanical and Physical Properties

The thermal conductivity of titanium is roughly 50% higher than for stainless steel. It makes titanium a preferred material for heat exchangers. The high specific strength (strength-to-weight ratio) characterizes titanium for some applications where less mass are required. Engineering experiences have shown that titanium exhibits good erosion resistance. Even water speeds of 10 m/s do not cause any erosion corrosion, cavitation, or impingement attack in the tubes. Thus, thin-walled heat exchanger/ condenser tubing can often be used with zero corrosion allowance.