The Armstrong process is used to refine titanium. Its output is particle-sized dust which can be sprayed into pattern-molds.W.H.P. Bill, C.A. Blue, J.O. Kiggans, and J.D.K. Rivard, Powder Metallurgy and Solid State Processing of Armstrong Titanium and Titanium Alloy Powders, ITA Annual Conference 2007 It was patented in 1999. The output of this process has a "coral-like morphology", which differs from the traditional outputs like "spherical gas-atomized powder, mechanically crushed angular particles, or the titanium sponge morphology created during the Kroll process."
History The Armstrong process was patented in 1999.
In 2016 a paper by MacDonald et al. told that the Armstrong powder was produced directly from the reduction of Titanium tetrachloride "in a continuous liquid loop", and cost only "11-24 USD/kg", or roughly an order of magnitude higher than the price of steel.
Description The reducing agent for the Armstrong process is sodium, which is liquefied and introduced in a combined stream with titanium tetrachloride. {TiCl4} + 4{Na} ->[98~^{\circ}\mathrm{C}]{Ti} + 4{NaCl}
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