Titan Gold

Are you familiar with anodized aluminum or titanium jewelry?  This is the process that is used to give the titanium the gold color.  The titanium gives you the grip, the gold is just to give it color.  I know older models had some issues with the gold color wearing off but it did not affect the grip. Newer models do not seem to have this problem.  Ther have been a few threads here regarding it.  Veen had  TG and I do not think she has had any issues with hers. I wish we could get other colors of titanium poles....you can pretty much make any color imaginable depending on the voltage of electricity used to anodize. http://www.valhallaarms.com/wyvern/titanium/anodizing.htm    

http://www.danco.net/page-photos/TITANIUM-COLORS2.jpg

Hey, beautiful chem goddess thanks for posting. Very cool... You could approach X-Pole about it as a marketing tip. Tell 'em how to do it and make royalties off the patent.  I have grip issues and have yet to make my purchase. I assumed I would get stainless steel or bronze but some posts here have recently stated that their poles have a coating that makes even the stainless seem even slicker than the chrome (which I found to be too slippery) and even the bronze was said to be not so tacky either.  Is it perhaps because it isn't real stainless or bronze and maybe it's an anodized metal made to simply look like those softer metals? Anyway, I would protect and patent your illustration of colored poles! I think you're onto something here that there could be a market for.   -Andie

I would kill for that purple pole!!! How awesome would that be!!!

See what I mean?

Anodization is not patentable; it has been around forever.  Some of you may be old enough to remember anodized aluminum cups.  Some of the colors "take" and "stay" better than others.  I think X chose the gold color because at the time they did not have a brass pole and they wanted something on the market that looked like one.  In Australia you can get a standard titanium pole, which I would LOVE to have!

Anodisation can only be performed on Aluminium. It cannot be done on steel or any iron based metals. Annodisation is oxidisation of the metal surface. The current X-Pole Titanium Gold poles are not anodised they are an additional electro plating process over the Chrome to give a further finish with more grip. It is not annodisation. The Gold colour was chosen, as 'Chem' says, to be similar to Gold/Brass and it was what was requested as a colour when we first began by the UK dancers. We did ask! We have actually done a 'Black' Titanium one - which is the pride and joy of our UK sales Manager - who will not let it out of her sight!!! Titanium is the name given to the colour process range by the surface processor and has zero to do with the metal of the tubes. A real titanium pole would be massively more expensive - like about 10~15 times more without the problems in machining Titanium. X-Pole is looking into many different types of materials in order to make poles lighter, more ridgid, higher grip and of course less expensive! Finally the Standard Titanium has only ever sold in Australia and is in the process of being progressively phased out over a period. Best Regards X-Pole Tech Team  

You are the first person who has ever clarified this.  Up to this point we were all led to believe that they were titanium.  So is this a titanium electroplate similar to the chrome electroplate?  I guess I am really confused now.

I'm confused too. Does it not have titanium at all? or is it a layer of titanium over the steel pole?

Sounds like Titanium is just Xpole's trade name for the electroplating process. Titanium is very expensive - if the TG Xpole was really coated entirely in a thin layer of titanium alloy, it would be a lot more than $30 more expensive than chrome. Titanium is usually used in industrial applications for its strength and lightness, as well as its ability to handle extreme temperature demands and high stresses (medical devices, machinery, racecar and aircraft frames, etc... the SR-71 Blackbird was something like 90% titanium alloy.)

Titanium really is not expensive.  I was able to do a quick google search and it is pricing at significantly less than brass tubing, so I am again confused.

The Xpole process sounds closer to the process of making white gold jewelry. There is no such thing as pure white gold - even the whitest gold has a yellowish tinge to it. So jewelers will often use white gold with some yellowness and then electroplate it with rhodium. Rhodium is silvery-white and produces a look not unlike platinum. But over time, the rhodium wears off and the yellowness of the gold underneath is exposed. This is what has happened to my wedding and engagement ring over time, and is probably why TG Xpoles begin to lose their gold color after heavy use. You can get white gold jewelry re-plated with rhodium at a jeweler if the discoloration is bothersome, they just put it in a liquid containing rhodium and run electrical current through it.

Case in point:  Look at the brass and stainless pricing on this page: http://www.buyrailings.com/p-748-2-od-tubing-005-wall-thickness-508-x-12446mm.aspx I have only been able to find one place that advertized the thickness of the walls of their stainless and brass pole kits and that was 0.05"   Now look at this site: http://www.titaniumjoe.com/index.cfm/products/tubing/   Their 2" x 0.07" titanium tubing is $4 a foot.  Even the thickest is only $9 a foot.

Reading and researching and am now wondering if the TG is Titanium Nitride, which makes this more of a ceramic coated type pole.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride   Here I have been on this forum for years stating that the poles are not coated but it looks like egg is on my face.

That link makes sense. I hope x pole clarifies. They have the two different titanium colors...

X-Pole's Titanium Gold Poles have an ‘Electrostatic coating’ on top of Chrome. The process uses a vacuum chamber with charged coating particles which are projected towards the parts and then applied using a powerful electrostatic charge. X-Pole has always advised on our web sites and brochures since we started that T-Gold, as it is often referred to, is an electronic coating that enhances grip. We have never said that the poles were actual Titanium material. The name was picked up 8 years ago when we introduced the finish. It was the name given to the colour range by the supplier and it stuck!! In hind sight maybe we should have given it a different name at the time but we in turn have always explained in all our promotonal material that it was a coating. In the early days of X-Pole we did discuss the use of Titanium as a material due to its lightness and durability but were advised, at that time, that it would be expensive and difficult/costly to produce as it needed special tools to machine. Have seen the Titanium material price comments on Veena that has intrigued the development team and so we have already gone back to the factory to ask the questions once again and see what the situation is now. One may suppose that like many materials volume is a key factory and the use of Titanium in aircraft, electronic goods, dentistry etc., may have driven volumes up and prices down compared to 6~7 years ago. As advised above we are asking the question and will reply when we know more. That may possibly be a while as it’s Chinese New Year next week and so the development centre at the factory will be closed for 10 days. Please bare with us and we will reply soonest. X-Pole Tech Team

Just piping in, my husband's wedding ring is titanium and cost us $45. Mine is white gold and was $200-some. (As of now, 3 years later, it's still quite "white.")  I mentioned this to him and his completely non-professional perspective is that titanium itself is dirt cheap, but it's also really difficult to work with and handle, requiring special tools and processes. That's where the manufacturing cost comes from, not the raw material itself.  Normally I really dislike yellow gold in terms of jewelry and stuff, but I LOVE my TG X-Pole! I named it "Goldeneye" when I got it. :) 

Interesting...I have danced on TG's that have faded and found the grip to be a bit better than chrome - placebo effect?  lol!  

Yes, that is the issue with titanium...it is definitely more difficult to work with.  You cannot size a titanium ring like you can size gold (melting point of Ti is about 1650C, whereas gold I think is about 1064C).  But is is an extremely durable metal.

Our experience with TG is that it can fade or discolour but the grip always stays. We believe it must be the pigment in the coating that fades whereas the coating itself does not and remains. We have a TG that is 5 years old and in places almost chrome coloured but it's still really grippy. Now we will have our own centre for development we will be able to test and experiment daily. If anyone one is in UK/London at any time (once we are fully open with our offices downstairs) you are more than welcome to come and play. Your product thoughts and opinions are invaluable to us. X-Pole The Team