Tungsten Industry Story: Strategic Metal - Tungsten

Tungsten is a rare and refractory metal with excellent physical, chemical, and mechanical processing properties. Tungsten products are widely used in almost all fields of the national economy, and are essential raw materials and functional materials in key fields such as national defense, military industry, and high-tech industries. They play an important role in ensuring national defense and economic security. In order to tell the story of the tungsten industry well and popularize scientific knowledge of the tungsten metal industry, the China Tungsten Industry Association has organized a solicitation activity for scientific knowledge in the tungsten industry. Our official account will successively release award-winning works of tungsten industry popular science knowledge solicitation activity for readers. This article is excerpted from the third prize work "The Past and Present Life of Tungsten" in the essay solicitation activity. The author is Luo Gang from the Profile Business Department of Zigong Cemented Carbide Co., Ltd.

What is tungsten

Tungsten is a metal element with the symbol of W and atomic number of 74. It is in the VIB group of the sixth cycle in the periodic table of elements. Tungsten metal is a silver white lustrous nonferrous rare metal with extremely high hardness and Mohs hardness of 7.5; The melting point is extremely high, reaching 3410 ℃, making it a refractory metal with a high melting point; At room temperature, it is not subject to air erosion and has relatively stable chemical properties.

carbide tool

tungsten powder

The Discovery of Tungsten

1、 The history of tungsten can be traced back to the 17th century. At that time, the miners in the Ers Mountains in Saxony, Germany, noticed that the reduction of cassiterite would be interfered by some unknown ores. These ores would produce slag in the smelting process, which would reduce the yield of tin like wolves devouring food. People used a compound word of wolf and foam to name this ore "wolfrahm". It can be seen that tungsten's debut was not popular at the beginning.

2、 In 1758, Swedish chemist and mineralogist Klansted officially named the ore "tungsten", which means "heavy stone" in Swedish, and he was convinced that this mineral contains some unknown element.

3、 In 1781, Swedish chemist Carl William Scheyer discovered scheelite and extracted tungstic acid from it.

4、 In 1783, the Spanish De Pulya discovered wolframite and extracted tungstic acid from it. In the same year, tungsten powder was obtained for the first time by reducing tungsten trioxide with carbon. Only then did tungsten, an element, finally emerge in the eyes of the world.

The Development of Tungsten

With the passage of time, the 19th century has arrived. With the continuous progress of metallurgical technology and chemistry, people have gradually begun to invest tungsten in industrial production.

In 1841, chemist Robert Oxland obtained the British patent rights for the production methods of sodium tungstate, tungstic acid, and metallic tungsten, which was a significant progress in the history of modern tungsten chemistry and opened the way for the modern production of tungsten.

In 1864, Machete added 5% tungsten to tool steel for the first time, and the resulting tool increased the metal cutting speed by 50%. This is also the first time tungsten has emerged in the industrial industry.

At the 1900 Paris World Expo, high-speed steel incorporating tungsten was first exhibited. From here on, tungsten began to receive attention from industrial powers around the world, and the extraction industry of tungsten also developed rapidly. Tungsten began to become an important alloying element.

In 1925, Schrault obtained the United States patent for the invention of tungsten cobalt carbide hard alloy. This patented method was first used in industrial production in Europe in 1926, which was the foundation of modern tungsten industrial production processes.

YG6 Tungsten Steel Products

In 1927, a hard alloy mainly composed of tungsten carbide was developed and widely used, and tungsten entered an important stage in its industrial development history. During this period, the properties of tungsten alloys in all aspects exceeded those of traditional tool steels, and tungsten began to be widely used in modern technology.

Application of Tungsten

Due to its metallic properties, tungsten has been widely used in almost all industrial industries, and applications of tungsten and its derivatives can be found everywhere

Industrial field: Due to its high hardness, the addition of tungsten can significantly improve the strength, hardness, and wear resistance of steel. It is an important alloy element widely used in the production of various steels, and its products are used to make various tools, such as drills, milling cutters, and molds; Tungsten carbide has high wear resistance and refractory properties, and its hardness is close to that of diamond, so it is often used in the production of hard alloys. Tungsten carbide based hard alloys are mainly used for manufacturing cutting tools, mining tools, and molds; Tungsten is a refractory metal with a high melting point and high hardness, so it is often used to manufacture wear-resistant alloys and produce wear-resistant parts such as valves in aircraft engines and turbine blades; Tungsten alloys with other refractory metals such as tantalum, niobium, molybdenum, and rhenium have better wear resistance and can be used to produce high thermal strength parts such as rocket nozzles and engines; Tungsten is also widely used in the manufacturing of high density alloys, which are often used in the manufacturing of contact materials such as heat sinks and knife switches due to their high strength, high thermal conductivity, good conductivity, and excellent processing performance.

Aircraft engines using tungsten alloys

Electronic field: Tungsten is widely used in the electronics and power supply industries due to its strong plasticity, low evaporation rate, high melting point, and strong electron emission ability. For example, tungsten filament has high luminous efficiency and long service life, and is often used to manufacture various light bulb filaments, such as incandescent lamps, iodine tungsten lamps, etc. In addition, tungsten wire can also be used to manufacture direct hot cathodes and gates for electronic oscillation tubes, as well as cathode heaters in various electronic instruments.

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 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 as catalyst for producing high octane gasoline in chemical industry; Tungsten disulfide is often used in organic synthesis, such as as as a solid lubricant and catalyst in the production of synthetic gasoline; Bronze colored tungsten oxide is used in painting.

Medical field: Due to the high hardness and density of tungsten, tungsten alloys are very suitable for medical fields 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.

Tungsten polymer radiation resistant material

Military field: In the early stages of World War I, German tungsten containing gun barrels fired 15000 rounds before being scrapped, while light machine gun barrels produced in countries such as Russia and France were scrapped after firing 6000 rounds because they did not contain tungsten. Tungsten is also an important material for kinetic energy armor piercing projectiles. Tungsten core armor piercing projectiles first appeared during World War II. At that time, the widely used hood armor piercing projectiles, hood armor piercing projectiles, and sub caliber shell piercing projectiles all used tungsten carbide as the core material. For example, the tungsten carbide hood armor piercing projectiles used in the 88mm main gun of the German Tiger tank can penetrate 156mm of homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 500 meters. After World War II, tungsten alloy bullet cores were developed and the design of armor piercing shells was improved. As a result, long rod tail stabilized tungsten alloy shell piercing shells were born, which can effectively deal with advanced composite armor. Long rod tail stabilized tungsten alloy shell piercing shells have become the main type of ammunition for various types of artillery. Tungsten is also widely used in the field of prefabricated lethal ammunition, such as prefabricated fragmentation grenades and programmable shells for anti-aircraft guns, which are generally made of tungsten alloy fragments or spheres. When a grenade or programmable shell explodes, high-speed flying tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments or spheres can effectively kill personnel, penetrate the armor of light armored vehicles, and damage the structure of various aerial targets.

Tungsten core armor piercing projectile

Tungsten metal, due to its excellent physical and chemical properties, is processed into hard alloy tools, tungsten special steel, etc. It is widely used in transportation, mining, industrial manufacturing, military industry, and other fields. It is a key tool for processing national heavy weapons, known as the "industrial tooth" and the "backbone of high-end manufacturing". Because of the scarcity and irreplaceable nature of tungsten resources, China regards tungsten as a strategic resource, and tungsten mining is strictly controlled by the state.

Note: This article is reprinted from: Chinese Tungsten Industry Academic Journal (if there is any infringement, please contact us promptly to delete it)