Tantalum 10 tungsten wire production
The process of making tantalum-10 tungsten rod into tantalum-10 tungsten wire involves a series of machining and heat treatment processes, including smelting, forging, rolling, wire drawing and other steps. The following is the specific production process:
1. Smelting and casting
Alloy preparation: First, tantalum and tungsten are mixed in proportion (90% tantalum and 10% tungsten), usually by vacuum arc melting (VAR) or electron beam melting (EBM) to prepare tantalum-10 tungsten alloy ingots. These two processes can effectively reduce impurities under vacuum conditions and ensure the uniformity of the alloy.
Casting: The smelted alloy will be cast into rods or ingots as raw materials for subsequent processing.
2. Forging
High temperature forging: Ta-10%W rods are heated and then forged. Due to the high melting point and high strength of tantalum and tungsten, the forging process is usually carried out at high temperatures to increase the plasticity of the alloy and reduce cracks or defects generated during processing.
Forged bars: High temperature forging will gradually process the coarse alloy ingot into a finer bar, ready for subsequent mechanical processing. The forging process can also further improve the microstructure uniformity and mechanical properties of the alloy.
3. Rolling and preliminary drawing
Hot or cold rolling: the forged tantalum-10% tungsten rod is further rolled into a fine bar. The hot rolling process is carried out in a heated state, making the material easier to deform; Cold rolling is carried out at a lower temperature, which can improve the strength and hardness of the material. The diameter of the rolled bar will be further reduced.
Intermediate annealing: Due to the high hardness and brittleness of tantalum and tungsten, hardening may occur during rolling and wire drawing. To solve this problem, an intermediate annealing is usually performed during rolling or wire drawing to heat the material to the appropriate temperature to restore its plasticity and avoid cracking or fracture.
4. Drawing process
Preliminary drawing: After rolling and annealing, the bar is fed into the wire drawing machine for preliminary drawing. The wire drawing process is done by gradually stretching the bar into a thinner wire by passing it through a mold with a gradually decreasing diameter. This process is usually carried out gradually to control the diameter of the wire and avoid breaking.
Multiple annealing: Since the Ta10%W alloy will gradually harden during the wire drawing process, it must be periodically annealed to restore plasticity. It is usually annealed after every few pulls to ensure that the material does not break due to over-hardening.
Fine drawing: After several initial drawing and annealing, the alloy wire will gradually approach the target diameter. At this time, the fining stage is entered, and the ultra-fine wire that meets the requirements is drawn.
5. Surface treatment
Chemical cleaning: The surface of Ta10W wire after wire drawing may have oxides or impurities, so it is usually necessary to chemical cleaning or pickling to remove surface contaminants and ensure that the surface of the wire is smooth.
Surface coating (optional) : In some special applications, special coatings may be added to Ta-10%W wires to enhance their properties, such as further improving corrosion resistance or electrical conductivity.
6. Quality control and testing
Detection of wire diameter and mechanical properties: After production, tantalum-10 tungsten wire needs to undergo strict quality testing, including the detection of wire diameter, surface finish, tensile strength, ductility and other parameters to ensure compliance with standards.
Precision calibration: In some applications, tantalum-10 tungsten wires require extremely high precision, so a final precision calibration may also be performed to ensure that the wire diameter is within a very small tolerance.
Fortu Tech can produce and process Tantalum billet, Tantalum sheet, Tantalum plate, Tantalum rod, Tantalum wire, Tantalum tube, Tantalum foil and so on.