The fact that North American light vehicle manufacturers built over 13 million new units by the end of 2011 certainly would seem to have led the charge in the recovery. That 13-million-figure is a 40% increase from just a few short years ago, when Detroit automotive companies were on the ropes and facing outright bankruptcy.

Heavy vehicle and heavy industrial equipment orders are also on the rise, reflecting an overall boom in American manufacturing capabilities. Examples abound across the board. Daimler has massively increased its fabrication capacities in North Carolina to accommodate demand for its Freightliner trucks in international markets as far-spread as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. GE recently brought back production of electric water heaters from China to Louisville, Kentucky.

All this splurge of productivity requires, of course, the means to produce it. Tool-steel, with its carbon- and alloy-based structure, has the ability to retain a keen cutting-edge in the face of iterative use, and is ideal as well for die-stamping, since it’s capable of withstanding repeated hard impact over long periods of time.

At Continental Steel and Tube, we look forward to a continuing boom in our sales of alloy steel bars, and other such materials beneficial to the tool steel industry, as American productivity continues its inevitable recovery and rise.

Keeping that in mind, a growing number of industries nowadays approach us for our titanium. From space exploration to competitive cycling, manufacturers and designers are finding ever more inventive ways to manifest their constructions using this lightweight, hard-packing element.

One creative application for titanium that is particularly au current these days is its use in golf clubs. As it stands, most traditional golf clubs are made from aluminum and steel. On average, a titanium club is only 60% weightier than an aluminum club, and 40% lighter than its steel-made cousin. Regardless of its lighter feel, a titanium club will not forgo any of the power of its swing. Because of this quality alone, titanium clubs are prized for their far-rangingness and accuracy in a sport that demands precisely these qualities. Aluminum and steel stand at opposite ends of this spectrum, but titanium commands the line-drive center of these properties.

Furthermore, titanium clubs are more durable and rust-proof than rival clubs. They can also be more easily adjusted and attuned towards a particular individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Holding a titanium golf club in different positions allows for different properties to come to the fore. One can aim for long-distance power using one particular hold, or one can enjoy greater accuracy by holding it some other way.

Sure as titanium has found its way into the cutting-edge technologies of Spacex and NASA, it’s an element that knows its way around a golf course. It’s only a matter of time before major golf club manufacturers “discover” this elemental metal for mainstream usage. It’s a question of when, not if, they “join the club”.

During the past couple years we’ve supplied titanium bars to a well-regarded American bicycle company that’s in the business of making high-performance titanium road, mountain, and custom bikes.  Known for its unmatched strength and beauty, titanium is also the perfect (albeit more expensive) material for building a bike with a competitive edge. Not only is titanium more resistant than, for example, a steel-frame bike, but it’s much lighter, allowing for a swifter ride and overall better handling on a difficult course.

By now our titanium’s been taken on the road (and on the dirt trail) for a number of well-known bike races, both national and international. But much more importantly, our titanium’s been incorporated into any number of bicycle frames that have been taken around the world or around the block on all kinds of adventures. The point is, we aren’t in this business simply to sell x amount of high-grade metal materials per month. We’re in this business because we like to see what people can do with our raw materials. Titanium is up to almost any challenge, the limits of which are pretty much circumscribed by your own imagination.

You don’t need to look much further (in fact, you really can’t look any further) than our work for SpaceX, a company that aims about as high as they come. Created by the founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, SpaceX aims to reduce by tenfold the cost of launching materials into space, thereby paving the way for future space exploration. We were approached by SpaceX to provide metal plates made from a high-grade titanium alloy, titanium-1533, for use in putting a new satellite into orbit around Earth. After receiving the materials from one of our vendors in China, we were able to supply SpaceX simply and efficiently – which, incidentally, are two of Elon Musk’s and SpaceX’s hallmark values.

To be sure, we’re in the business of “hard-to-find metals” for a lot of different reasons, but we didn’t grow into the company we’ve become without shooting for the moon. We’re proud to be part of a larger project that we feel will ultimately benefit future generations of human beings. SpaceX is a quantum leap into a new age of affordable space exploration (where technological costs have stagnated these past forty years, unlike almost any other industry on Earth).  The way we see our role in this endeavor, we keep the supply chain rolling so that the satellites and rockets can soar.