IperionX Limited has agreed a Scope of Work (SoW) for the supply of titanium metal components for Ford Motor Company using IperionX’s 100% recycled, low-carbon titanium metal. Ford and IperionX have been actively collaborating to design, test and additively manufacture a series of high-quality titanium components for future Ford Performance production vehicles.

Ford Performance is the high-performance and racing division of the Ford Motor Company, known for a leading range of performance cars such as the F150 Raptor, Bronco Raptor, Mustang Mach 1 and the Shelby GT500. Ford aims to be the only manufacturer competing in Formula 1, Le Mans 24 Hours with Mustang GT3, WRC with the M-Sport Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, Baja 1000 with Ranger Raptor and Bronco, and NASCAR and Supercars with Mustang.

This Ford SoW follows a detailed program of quality and strength testing of IperionX’s low-carbon, circular titanium metal. Ford’s Sustainability and Advanced Materials divisions undertook a range of testing procedures, verifying that IperionX’s titanium surpassed the required parameters set under ASTM International standards.

The titanium components are set to undergo a comprehensive finishing study to assess a range of potential surface finish of parts. The insights gained from this SoW will guide the final design, and unit costs, for a range of low-carbon titanium components for Ford Performance production vehicles.

Automotive parts made with titanium are notable for superior strength-to-weight ratios, high levels of corrosion resistance, outstanding durability and—unique to IperionX’s technologies—can be sustainably recycled at the end of the product life. IperionX says that its proprietary technologies can unlock significant sustainability benefits that are critical for a low-carbon, fully circular titanium automotive supply chain—attributes that can’t be achieved with any other known commercial titanium production process.

The Hydrogen Assisted Metallothermic Reduction Process (HAMR) is IperionX’s proprietary technology developed by Dr. Zak Fang with funding from the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program. HAMR is a patented powder metallurgy process technology that allows for the production of titanium powders. This process can take almost any form of titanium or scrap titanium alloy feedstock and produce titanium powders at very low energy intensity, enabling the potential for low cost, low carbon emission production in a sustainable closed loop.

The majority of the energy and emissions savings comes through eliminating the need to chlorinate TiO₂ to make TiCl₄ and removing the need for vacuum distillation after the reduction of TiCl₄.

The HAMR process uses conventional powder metallurgy processing steps to control the size of the particles, add alloying elements, and ensure that the result is high quality titanium powder. Typically, at this stage, titanium powders produced via the conventional Kroll process or other related technologies result in a titanium powder that is high in oxygen content. This is where the HAMR process comes in.

These high-oxygen titanium powders are processed via the HAMR process technology, which reduces oxygen levels below current industry requirements. The process destabilizes Ti-O using hydrogen, making it possible to turn the reduction of TiO₂ with Mg from being thermodynamically impossible to thermodynamically favored.

This allows TiO₂ to be reduced and deoxygenated directly by Mg to form TiH2 with low oxygen levels that can meet the needs of the industry. TiH₂ is then further processed to titanium metal through industry standard approaches.

IperionX is producing titanium metal powders from titanium scrap at its operational pilot facility in Utah, and intends to scale production at a Titanium Demonstration Facility in Virginia. IperionX holds a 100% interest in the Titan Project, which has the largest JORC-compliant resource of titanium, rare earth and zircon rich mineral sands in the US.