The Korea Institute of Materials Science, a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, signed

an MOU with Dong-A Special Metal, Corentec, and World Trend to cooperate in the R&D of titanium alloy material parts. The

parties mutually agreed to promote cooperation and exchanges.

Titanium (Ti) is used for dental implants and artificial joints due to its outstanding performance and biocompatibility and its

market are rapidly increasing by 6.6% per year due to the aging population, etc. (*dental implant market: $34.7 billion in 2019).

As there are only a few producers of medical titanium in the global market, and the companies using titanium are using

imported materials that have already been verified, the foothold for localizing and developing the material processing

(melting, hot rolling, etc.) is inadequate.

For the purpose of cooperation in the research and development of high-performance titanium alloy bio/medical and eyewear

frame materials, the MOU is to support technology development, human resource training, and government policy and

planning. The four parties will carry out △R&D and technical support for high-performance titanium alloys, △process

development and technical support for manufacturing rods/wires/plates, △evaluation of the reliability of demand-customized

high-performance titanium parts and products, △human resource exchange, joint use of research equipment, and holding

regular information and technology exchange meetings.

Jung-hwan Lee, the president of KIMS, said, “The key of the MOU is to link the supply chain ranged from titanium raw

materials (ingots, billets) to intermediate materials (rods, wires) and final goods for medical uses (dental implants, etc.). We

will put our utmost to achieve the goals as soon as possible, from development of raw and intermediate materials to

development of medical parts and products, reliability verification, and development of processing optimization platform.”