Metal is everywhere you look. It’s so common you can even start taking it for granted.
When you work in manufacturing and market your products to businesses large and small? Taking your own materials for granted is just not an option. You need to be the middleman between employees and businesses, helping them see the importance of the right electrodes and alloy products while remaining accessible. The molybdenum manufacturing process and tungsten alloy machining resources have gone through some changes over the years, attempting to find that happy balance between quick production and long-lasting quality.
The only way to achieve this is to appreciate each metal’s unique property and what it adds to your bottom line.
So many of today’s everyday items and equipment utilize some form of metal. Your home computer relies on fine inlays of copper for its circuit board. Your doorknob, faucet and porch are designed to have stainless steel that keeps from rusting. The coins you use to buy food or do laundry have trace amounts of nickel. Metal is a reliable element that’s both durable and flexible, able to be adjusted to minute specifications and last for many years. When it comes to manufacturing some metals have proven more useful than others.
Tungsten is a fantastic element that yields a great return on the investment, due in no small part to its many hardy properties. It’s more than twice as dense as steel, for starters, and has a tensile strength of 1,500 megapascals. The Moh’s hardness scale is used to determine the density and durability of various metals and stones, with tungsten carbide falling between 8.5 and 9. This means the only substance even harder than tungsten is the diamond. Glass melting electrodes and furnace electrodes are bolstered with the aid of good tungsten materials.
Tungsten is not a new discovery. It was actually discovered over 230 years ago in the late 1700’s, but wouldn’t be applied to an industry for another 150 years. This material only appears naturally when combined in four major mineral forms, which include iron, calcium or manganese. Of all the metals in pure form, tungsten is notable for having the highest melting point at 6,150 degrees Fahrenheit. Combined with the highest tensile strength and lowest vapor pressure it remains a perfect fit for products that are constantly shifting their temperatures, such as furnaces, air conditioning systems and water tanks.
Tungsten isn’t always easy to find, however. It’s estimated there ar only 1.25 grams of tungsten per 1,000 kilograms of the Earth’s crust. Molybdenum, much like tungsten, was only recognized in the late 1700’s and has since been used for many different purposes over the past 200 years. Molybdenum has a very high melting point, landing at just under 4,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Molybdenum glass melting electrodes, in particular, are required to have purity levels of over 99% to have enough resistance to chemical corrosion and degradation. This is also useful for minimizing glass discoloration.
The tungsten manufacturing process, just like working with stainless steel or copper, means understanding its intrinsic qualities and pushing them to their limits. A vacuum furnace manufacturer that wants to create products that remain beautiful while still holding up to constant temperature fluctuations knows this. Manufacturing plants that create replacement parts know this. When you embrace the unique properties of tungsten electrodes you open up an entirely new avenue for high-quality services.
Tungsten alloy machining isn’t like working with silver or copper…and that’s perfectly fine.
