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Factories in the USSR often had a shortage of parts, but they still had to meet production quotas. This usually meant a reduction in quality, but it goes the ot
by fy20 3y ago
Factories in the USSR often had a shortage of parts, but they still had to meet production quotas. This usually meant a reduction in quality, but it goes the other way too. I've heard stories that consumer appliance factories would run out of stainless steel, so they would use titanium alloy instead, as it was more plentiful.
In my country, one of the most unique consumer appliances they made was a potato grating machine. Today the same device continues to made, unchanged since Soviet times.
- smcl 3y agoIs Titanium not famously quite hard to work with? I imagine that it would be hard to sub in for stainless steel, so for normal white goods I don't know if it'd be worth it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- int_19h 3y agoFWIW, for a while (before the war in Ukraine), VSMPO-Avisma, the largest titanium extractor and exporter in Russia, was selling stuff like titanium gardening shovels, rakes etc on Amazon and eBay.
- smcl 3y agoAhh so maybe the expensive or difficult titanium work is the really high-end stuff like SR-71? I just recall from Skunk Works that they had a tough time working with it.
- int_19h 3y agoIt's definitely harder to work, but I suspect that once they invest into the appropriate tooling (for military products where it has to be titanium), it's easy and relatively cheap to repurpose for other products.