Tungsten heavy alloy offered by CHEMETAL USA contains tungsten content ranging from 80%-98% with small amounts of molybdenum, nickel, iron and copper elements.
After going through the mixing, pressing and sintering process, Tungsten is alloyed with other metals beginning as a form of powders.
16.5-19.0 g/cm3 density of tungsten heavy alloy is the most important industrial property. The density of
tungsten is two times higher than steel and 1.5 times higher than lead. Although, many other metals such as gold, platinum and tantalum, have a comparable density to heavy tungsten alloy. However, they are either over expensive to obtain or exotic to the environment.
Tungsten heavy alloy gives excellent service in applications requiring a remarkable performance in corrosion resistance, density, machinability and radiation shielding. Therefore, this makes it ideal for use in specified steelmaking, mining, aerospace and medical industries.
Tungsten Heavy Alloy Properties
- Low thermal expansion
- High thermal and electrical conductivity
- High arc resistance
- Low consumption
Tungsten Heavy Alloy Applications
High Density
Combined with the high machinability and high module elasticity, the density property makes the tungsten heavy alloy to be capable of being machined into a variety of density needed components in many industrial fields. Given an example of counterweight. In a very limited space, counterweight made of tungsten heavy alloy is the most preferred material to offset the gravity change caused by off balance, vibration and swinging.
Radiation Absorption
Another considerable advantage of tungsten heavy alloy is radiation shielding which is also associated with the high-density property of tungsten alloy.
The radiation shielding effect of one material will go up along with a rising of its density. Due to this property, tungsten heavy alloy has been widely used in radiation shielding application. The radiation absorption capacity is one time higher than the lead-based material.
Tungsten alloy shield has one time higher radiation absorption capacity than the lead shield. On the other hand, tungsten heavy alloy is nontoxic to the environment. For radiation shielding application, the absorbing capacity to gamma radiation and X-ray radiation is 30% to 40% higher than lead materials. The component is 25% to 50% less weight than lead. Meanwhile, it relieves the concern of cost caused by waste processing and toxic threaten.
Hardness and Wear Resistance
Besides the high density and radiation absorption, many valuable properties associated with the high hardness and resistance have been used in a large number of applications. Tungsten heavy alloy belongs to refractory metal alloys which are extraordinarily resistant to heat and wear. Tungsten heavy alloy has been primarily used to make components required high wearing resistance such as machining tools including lathes and dices.
It gets a little reduction of their characteristics even at high temperature and has excellent wear resistance. Therefore, Tungsten alloys are used for the machining tools such as lathes, milling machines etc. and manufacturing automobile parts such as engines, transmissions, steering etc., which contribute to an improvement of machining accuracy.
- Contact and electrode materials
- High temperature furnace component
- Head sink
- EDM electrode
- Arc contact
Tungsten Heavy Alloy Standards
| ASTM B 777 | Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 4 | |
| Tungsten Nominal % | 90 | 92.5 | 95 | 97 | |
| Density (g/cc) | 16.85-17.25 | 17.15-17.85 | 17.75-18.35 | 18.25-18.85 | |
| Hardeness (HRC) | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | |
| Utimate Tensile Strength | ksi | 110 | 110 | 105 | 100 |
| Mpa | 758 | 758 | 724 | 689 | |
| Yield Strength at 0.2% off-set | ksi | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Mpa | 517 | 517 | 517 | 517 | |
| Elongation (%) | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| AMS-T-21014 | Class 1 | Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 3 | Class 4 |
| Composition | 90W7Ni3Fe | 91W6Ni3Fe | 92W5Ni3Fe | 93W4Ni3Fe | 95W3Ni2Fe | 96W3Ni1Fe | 97W2Ni1Fe |
| Density (g/cm3) | 17.1±0.15 | 17.25±0.15 | 17.50±0.15 | 17.60±0.15 | 18.10±0.15 | 18.30±0.15 | 18.50±0.15 |
| Heat Treatment | Sintering | Sintering | Sintering | Sintering | Sintering | Sintering | Sintering |
| Tensile Strength (Mpa) | 900-1000 | 900-1000 | 900-1000 | 900-1000 | 920-1100 | 920-1100 | 920-1100 |
| Elongation (%) | 18-29 | 17-27 | 16-26 | 16-24 | 10-22 | 8-20 | 6-13 |
| Hardness (HRC) | 24-28 | 25-29 | 25-29 | 26-30 | 27-32 | 28-34 | 28-36 |
| Mil-T-21014 | Class1 | Class1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 3 | Class 4 |
| Composition | 90%W, 6%Ni4%Cu | 90%W, 7%Ni3%Fe | 92.5%W, 5.25%Ni 2.25%Fe | 95%W, 3.5%Ni 1.5% Cu | 95%W, 3.5%Ni 1.5%Fe | 97%W, 2.1%Ni 0.9%Fe |
| Density (gm/cc; lbs/in3) | 17;0.614 | 17;0.614 | 17.5;0.632 | 18;0.65 | 18;0.65 | 18.5;0.668 |
| Hardness (RC) | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 28 |
| Ultimate Tensile Strength (PSI) | 110,000 | 120,000 | 114,000 | 110,000 | 120,000 | 123,000 |
| Yield Strength, . 2% Offset (PSI) | 80,000 | 88,000 | 84,000 | 85,000 | 90,000 | 85,000 |
| Elongation (% In 1“) | 6 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Proportional Elastic Limit (PSI) | 45,000 | 52,000 | 46,000 | 45,000 | 44,000 | 45,000 |
| Magnetic Properities | Nil | Slightly Magnetic | Slightly Magnetic | Nil | Slightly Magnetic | Slightly Magnetic |
| ASTM-B-459-67 | Grade1 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ | Grade1 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ | Grade2 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ | Grade3 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ | Grade3 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ | Grade4 Type Ⅱ && Ⅲ |
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