Research & Development

Astron is highly focused towards development in new and improved products and processes.

To ensure the continued growth in the pipeline of expansion opportunities Astron has its own in-house research facility in China. The focus of this R&D capability is around products allied to titanium, zirconium, silica and rare earths.

The chemistry of these products provides tremendous and exciting potential for new business opportunities for Astron. Astron’s commitment and dedication to understanding titanium and zirconium metallurgy and chemistry and developing new products applications sets it apart from its competitors. The Astron R&D focus is to create solutions that allow our customers to be more successful.

With this focus, our experienced scientists and engineers (from China and Russia) have developed many customised products that maximise performance in the manufacturing process or in customers’ end products.
Several new processes remain under development, including:

• a new fluorination process to produce rutile titanium dioxide
• a new process to produce titanium metal directly from rutile and master alloys
• new processes for the production of titanium alloys
• production of nano-particle zirconia using plasma flame oxidation
• the production of a titanium coloured panels