What are the application fields of tungsten?
Tungsten is a rare metal, which looks like steel. It has become one of the most important functional materials in modern industry, national defense and high-tech applications because of its high melting point, high hardness, excellent corrosion resistance and good electrical and thermal conductivity. What are the specific application fields of tungsten?
1、 Alloy field
steel
Due to its high hardness and high density, tungsten is an important alloy element because it can significantly improve the strength, hardness and wear resistance of steel. It is widely used in the production of various steels. Common tungsten containing steels include high-speed steel, tungsten steel and tungsten cobalt magnetic steel. They are mainly used to manufacture various tools, such as drill bits, milling cutters, female molds and male molds.
Tungsten carbide based cemented carbide
Tungsten carbide has high wear resistance and refractory, and its hardness is close to diamond, so it is often used in the production of cemented carbide. Tungsten carbide based cemented carbide can be generally divided into four categories: tungsten carbide cobalt, tungsten carbide titanium carbide cobalt, tungsten carbide titanium carbide tantalum (niobium) – cobalt and steel bonded cemented carbide. They are mainly used to manufacture cutting tools, mining tools and wire drawing dies.
Tungsten Carbide bit
Wear resistant alloy
Tungsten is a refractory metal with the highest melting point (generally higher than 1650 ℃), which has high hardness, so it is often used to manufacture heat strength and wear-resistant alloys, such as alloys of tungsten and chromium, cobalt and carbon, which are often used to produce wear-resistant parts such as valve of aeroengine and turbine impeller, The alloys of tungsten and other refractory metals (such as tantalum, niobium, molybdenum and rhenium) are often used to produce high thermal strength parts such as rocket nozzle and engine.
High specific gravity alloy
Tungsten has become an ideal material for manufacturing high specific gravity alloys because of its high density and high hardness. According to different composition characteristics and uses, these high specific gravity alloys can be divided into W-Ni-Fe, W-Ni-Cu, W-Co, w-wc-cu, W-Ag and other series. They are often used to manufacture contact materials such as armor, heat dissipation sheet, knife switch, circuit breaker and so on because of their large specific gravity, high strength, high thermal conductivity, good electrical conductivity and superior processing performance.
2、 Electronic field
Tungsten is widely used in electronics and power industry because of its strong plasticity, low evaporation rate, high melting point and strong electron emission ability. For example, tungsten filament has high luminous rate and long service life, and is often used to make various bulb filaments, such as incandescent lamp, iodine tungsten lamp and so on. In addition, tungsten wire can also be used to manufacture direct hot cathode and grid of electronic oscillation tube and cathode heater in various electronic instruments.
3、 Chemical industry
Tungsten compounds are commonly used to produce certain types of paints, pigments, inks, lubricants and catalysts. For example, sodium tungstate is commonly used in the manufacture of metal tungsten, tungstic acid and tungstate, as well as dyes, pigments, inks, electroplating, etc; Tungstic acid is often used as mordant and dye in textile industry and catalyst for preparing high octane gasoline in chemical industry; Tungsten disulfide is often used in organic synthesis, such as solid lubricant and catalyst in the preparation of synthetic gasoline; Bronze tungsten oxide is used in painting.
Yellow tungsten oxide
4、 Medical field
Due to its high hardness and density, tungsten alloy is very suitable for medical fields such as X-ray and radiation protection. Common tungsten alloy medical products include X-ray anode, anti scattering plate, radioactive container and syringe shielding container.
5、 Military field
Due to its non-toxic and environment-friendly properties, tungsten products have been used to replace the previous lead and depleted uranium materials to make bullet warheads, so as to reduce the pollution of military materials to the ecological environment. In addition, due to the characteristics of strong hardness and good high temperature resistance, tungsten can make the combat performance of the prepared military products more superior. Tungsten products used in military mainly include tungsten alloy bullets and kinetic energy armor piercing bullets.
In addition to the above fields, tungsten can also be used in aerospace, navigation, atomic energy, shipbuilding, automobile industry and other fields.