giod Posted September 10, 2013 Posted September 10, 2013 So I now own both. and can see clearly the visible difference.. (and I understand the ferro contains iron.. although at what percentage i don't know..) my question is.. how are they physically different other than appearance. both can be added to salutes and stars/comets for effect, in the same way? the sponge I have is 10x larger than the ferro, and I've experimented with the sponge loosely in a mine, and in a tiny canister shell. Anyway just trying to find out the main difference in applications. thanks!
pyrokid Posted September 10, 2013 Posted September 10, 2013 Large sponge titanium is frequently added to salutes for the classic snowball effect. Comets can be made with it too. Both are great effects! Ferrotitanium is used more commonly as a star/comet additive than as a salute additive, but I've seen at least one Japanese flash formula that uses a large percentage of FeTi for added sparks. It is also added to fuel mixtures for farfalles and such. 1
psyco_1322 Posted September 11, 2013 Posted September 11, 2013 Be Careful if you use the sponge Ti in stars. If it's really coarse stuff, like say grapenut sized, you can very well see a bunch coming down while still glowing hot. That will start fires, trust me! Ti in stars seems to burn longer than when it comes out of a salute. FeTi is good for brocade type stars. It could also be used in hummers and farfalle, but it's kinda a waste to throw into a salute as it will be dim and hard to notice.
giod Posted September 18, 2013 Author Posted September 18, 2013 So what's the deference between spherical ti and FeTi.?
Shadowcat1969 Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 FeTi is actually Iron and Titanium mixed in a proportion. I've had 40:60, 50:50 and 60:40 in the past and had no real visible difference from them. Spherical Ti will be straight Titanium. If memory serves, and it probably is wrong and I hope I am corrected if so, the Titanium yields pretty bright white sparks while the Iron content in the FeTi ends up moving them more into an orange color. That is when they are used in things like stars, comets or gerbs/drivers.
giod Posted September 18, 2013 Author Posted September 18, 2013 FeTi is actually Iron and Titanium mixed in a proportion. I've had 40:60, 50:50 and 60:40 in the past and had no real visible difference from them. Spherical Ti will be straight Titanium.If memory serves, and it probably is wrong and I hope I am corrected if so, the Titanium yields pretty bright white sparks while the Iron content in the FeTi ends up moving them more into an orange color. That is when they are used in things like stars, comets or gerbs/drivers. so does that mean that the FeTi i'm buying, I can safely assume is spherical? also the only reason to buy FeTi rather than straight Ti is for a more orange color effect?
Shadowcat1969 Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 The color effect is really the only thing that I am aware of for FeTi vs. Ti. As far as shape and size of the FeTi, you would need to verify those with the place you're getting it from as it could be any of many forms.
Mumbles Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 I've actually only ever seen FeTi available as sponge. It's an intermediate available in making steel. There is little reason to spend any time doing additional particle or shape refining on it. Basically everything we use in pyrotechnics is just a by-product or a small siphoned off stream of a major industrial chemical or process. 1
Shadowcat1969 Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 Good to know. I've only ever really looked at the mesh size of FeTi and what I have (both -30 +60 mesh and -40 +325) is described as "granular" which could mean just about any shape.
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