What Are the Applications of Tungsten?

Tungsten is a rare metal, the shape of which resembles steel, because of its high melting point, hardness, excellent corrosion resistance, good electrical and thermal conductivity and other advantages, and has become one of the extremely important functional materials in modern industry, national defense and high-tech applications. What are the specific application areas of tungsten?

 

1. Application of Tungsten in the Alloy Field

 

Steel

Tungsten's hardness is very high, tungsten's density is close to that of gold, thus it can improve the strength, hardness and wear resistance of steel, it is an important alloying element, it is widely used in the production of all kinds of steels, common tungsten-containing steels are high-speed steel, tungsten steel, and tungsten-cobalt magnetic steel with high magnetizing strength and coercive magnetism, these steels are mainly used in the manufacture of all kinds of tools, such as drills, milling cutters, wire drawing dies, cathode die and anode die, etc..

 

Tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide

Tungsten carbide has high wear resistance and refractoriness, and its hardness is close to that of diamond, so it is often used in some cemented carbide. At present, tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide is the largest consumer of tungsten. This kind of cemented carbide is a powder metallurgy product made by sintering tungsten carbide micron-sized powder and metal binder (e.g., cobalt, nickel, molybdenum) in a vacuum furnace or hydrogen reduction furnace. Tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide is broadly divided into tungsten carbide - cobalt, tungsten carbide - titanium carbide - cobalt, tungsten carbide - titanium carbide - tantalum carbide (niobium) - cobalt and steel junction cemented carbide and so on four categories. These tungsten carbide-based cemented carbides are mainly used in the manufacture of cutting tools, mining tools and wire drawing dies.

 

Heat-strength and wear-resistant alloys

The melting point of tungsten is the highest among all metals, and its hardness is also very high, so it is often used to produce heat-strength and wear-resistant alloys. For example, the alloys of tungsten and chromium, cobalt and carbon are often used to produce high-strength and wear-resistant parts such as valves of aviation engines and impellers of turbines, etc., whereas the alloys of tungsten and other refractory metals (e.g. tantalum, niobium, molybdenum, rhenium) are often used to produce high-heat-strength parts such as nozzles of aviation rockets, and engines.

High Specific Gravity Alloys

Due to the high density of tungsten, high hardness, thus becoming the production of high specific gravity alloys of ideal materials, these high specific gravity alloys according to the composition of the characteristics and uses are divided into the main series of W-Ni-Fe, W-Ni-Cu, W-Co, W-WC-Cu, W-Ag, etc., such alloys have a large specific gravity, high strength, strong ray absorption, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion coefficient of a small, good electrical conductivity, Weldability and good processability and other characteristics, is widely used in aerospace, aviation, military, oil drilling, electrical instrumentation, medicine and other industries, such as the manufacture of armor, heat sinks, control the balance of the rudder hammer, and such as the gate switch, circuit breaker, spot welding electrode and other contact materials.

 

 2. Electronics
Tungsten is widely used in the electronics and power supply industries because of its plasticity, low evaporation rate, high melting point, and high electron-emitting ability, thus tungsten and its alloys are widely used in the electronics and power supply industries. For example, tungsten filament has a high luminous rate and long service life, thus it is widely used in the manufacture of various light bulb filaments, such as incandescent lamps, tungsten iodine lamps, etc. Tungsten filament can also be used in the manufacture of direct hot cathodes and grids of electronic oscillator tubes as well as the side hot cathode heaters in various electronic instruments. The characteristics of tungsten make it also very suitable for TIG welding and other similar electrode materials for such work.

 

 3. Chemical field
Tungsten compounds are commonly used as catalysts and inorganic colors, e.g. tungsten disulfide is used as a lubricant and catalyst in the production of synthetic gasoline, bronze-colored tungsten oxide is used in paintings, and calcium or magnesium tungsten is commonly used in phosphors.

 

 4. Medical applications
Tungsten's high hardness and density make tungsten alloys ideal for medical applications such as X-ray and radiation protection. Common tungsten alloy medical products include X-ray anodes, anti-scattering plates, radioactive containers and syringe shielding containers.

 

 

5. Military

At the beginning of World War I, German tungsten-containing barrels fired 15,000 rounds before being scrapped, while light machine gun barrels produced by Russia, France and other countries were scrapped after firing 6,000 rounds because they did not contain tungsten. Tungsten is also an important material for kinetic energy armor-piercing ammunition, tungsten core armor-piercing ammunition first appeared in the World War II period, when the widespread use of the wind cap armor-piercing ammunition, wind cap cap armor-piercing ammunition, sub-caliber shell armor-piercing ammunition are tungsten carbide as the core material, for example, the German Tiger tanks, 88 mm main gun using tungsten carbide wind cap cap armor-piercing ammunition at a distance of 500 meters can be penetrated by the 156 mm homogeneous steel armor. After World War II, tungsten alloy core was developed, and the bullet design of armor-piercing rounds was improved, resulting in the birth of long-stick tail-stabilized tungsten alloy armor-piercing rounds, which can effectively deal with advanced composite armor, and the long-stick tail-stabilized tungsten alloy armor-piercing rounds have become the main type of rounds used by various types of artillery. Tungsten in the prefabricated anti-personnel ammunition is also widely used, such as prefabricated fragmentation grenades and anti-aircraft programmable shells are commonly used tungsten alloy made of fragments or spheres. When the grenades or programmable shells explode, the tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments or spheres flying at high speeds can effectively kill and injure personnel, penetrate the armor of light armored vehicles, and destroy the structure of various types of aerial targets.

 

In addition to the above fields, tungsten can also be used in aerospace, navigation, atomic energy, ships, automobile industry and other fields. For more information, please contact euros.yang@xuboti.com.