Everyone knows that metals are tough and long-lasting materials, but many of the applications they’re used for across all areas of life involve intense mechanical stresses.
To ensure that metal parts stay strong and continue to fulfil their purposes in challenging environments, we often rely on highly resistant refractory metals.
Metals are classed as refractory if they have a melting point above 2,000°C, but it is widely accepted that tungsten, rhenium, tantalum, molybdenum, and niobium are the primary refractory metals.
These metals are all quite dense, with excellent resistance against high temperatures, thermal shock, creep, and corrosion, in addition to being good conductors of heat and electricity.
Being extremely wear-resistant, especially when combined with other metals to form super-alloys, refractory metals can help materials and parts to meet ever more stringent specifications that lesser metals can’t.
Here are some examples of the many industries and fields that make use of refractory metals and their resistant properties.
Electrical industry
These conductive yet heat-resistant metals make excellent electrical contact materials, used in electrodes, cathodes, anodes, and capacitors, in addition to filaments, switches, and casings.
Such parts can be found in a variety of electronic devices, from X-ray machines to microwaves. Most electronics we use every day incorporate them in some way, from phones, laptops, and cameras to televisions, games consoles, printers, and musical instruments.
Medical industry
When used in a range of medical equipment, where the risk of component failure must be reduced by using reliable materials, refractory metals help to save countless lives around the world.
They can be used in medical scanning devices such as MRI machines, providing radiation shields against X-rays and gamma rays. Their resistance to corrosion makes them biologically inert, suitable for both surgical instruments and implants in all parts of the body.
Nuclear industry
Low thermal neutron cross-sections and resistance to heat, radiation, and corrosion make refractory metals key safety materials for use in uranium processing and nuclear fission.
They can be used as structural materials or radiation shielding materials throughout nuclear reactors, from control rods and pipelines to nuclear waste storage tanks. Their resistance to thermal shock also helps nuclear reactors to maintain rapid heating and cooling cycles.
Aerospace and defence
Again, high thermal resistance and mechanical resilience make refractory metals ideal for parts that must endure extremely high temperatures, especially when alloyed to increase creep resistance without increasing weight.
This includes a range of aircraft parts, from jet engines and turbines to rocket engine nozzles and thrusters. These metals can also be used in military equipment, such as bullets and missiles.
Industrial parts
From mining and smelting to die-casting and metalworking, refractory metals have the wide range of resistant properties needed to endure the excessive thermal and mechanical stresses involved in the creation of metal components and tools for many different industries.
These include glassmaking furnaces and crucibles, cutting and forming dies for machine parts, and more. Tungsten carbide is also used to strengthen the tips and blades of drilling and cutting tools.
Chemical industries
Though chemical uses for refractory metals are less common, their oxides, sulphides, acids, and more can be used as catalysts in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.
They can be applied as chemical catalysts in automobile ignition or for selective catalytic reduction in coal-fired power plants, or used as reagents to separate minerals or reduce acids to aldehydes. They can also be used to form anti-corrosive coatings or to create anti-friction lubricants.
Other applications
In addition the various uses outlined above, refractory metals are often used in the construction industry – not just in tools and equipment, but also in structural tubing and pipelines.
High-density metals like these are also suitable for making counter-balancing weights for use in aircraft rotor blades, military munitions, sports equipment, and clocks.
Their use in superconducting magnets means that refractory metals like niobium can also be found in the Large Hadron Collider and other particle accelerators.
Some of these metals – like tungsten – and their composites can be used to create durable, scratch-resistant jewellery, accessories, and ornaments.
Their oxides can also create organic pigments for dyes and paints, including fluorescent pigments.
Order refractory metal parts online
The high performance of refractory metal parts and fittings makes them the go-to choice for many sectors within many industries, but they can easily be sourced online.
For example, Special Metals are trusted UK suppliers of tungsten metal, in addition to other refractory metal parts in specified sizes and quantities.
Refractory metals are available in a wide selection of forms, from wires, billets, and bars to sheets and crucibles, in standard and custom measurements, so you’re sure to find what you need.