Tungsten Powder Uses & Production Methods

Tungsten powder is powdered metal tungsten. It is the main raw material for processing powder metallurgy tungsten products and tungsten alloys. In this article, let's take a look at the tungsten powder uses and production methods. 

Tungsten Powder Uses

Tungsten powder is widely used in the industry and in our everyday life. The following are the 5 common uses of tungsten powder.

Tungsten Powder Uses

1. It is used as a raw material for making tungsten carbide powder. This is one of the important uses of tungsten powder. The ultra-fine-grained cemented carbides that have emerged in recent years are good tools for cutting difficult new materials such as titanium alloys, heat-resistant steels, nickel-based, and drill-based alloys, and are specifically used for turning tools, milling tools, drill bits, and molds and many more.

2. Pure tungsten powder can be made into materials suitable for processing such as wire, rod, tube, plate, and other products with a certain shape.

3. Tungsten powder is mixed with other metal powders and after a certain forming process, it can be made into various tungsten alloys, such as tungsten molybdenum alloy, tungsten rhenium alloy, tungsten copper alloy, and high-density tungsten alloy, etc.

4. Tungsten powder can also be used as thermal spray tungsten powder in the thermal spray welding process. The principle is that although it is difficult to directly melt tungsten metal powder with a gas-burning flame after the flame melts the added self-fusible alloy, the melted self-fusible alloy can firmly bond the tungsten powder to the blank.

5. Tungsten powder can be sintered into various porosity filters.

Tungsten Powder Production Methods

1. Hydrogen Reduction Method

This method uses hydrogen to reduce tungsten trioxide or ammonium paratungstate to get tungsten powder. The process of preparing tungsten powder by hydrogen reduction method is generally divided into two stages:

In the first stage, at a temperature of 500-700 ° C, tungsten trioxide is reduced to tungsten dioxide. In the second stage, at a temperature of 700-900 ° C, tungsten dioxide is reduced to tungsten powder. The reduction reaction is often carried out in a tube-type electric furnace or a rotary furnace.

Tungsten Powder Uses

2. Tungsten Oxide Carbon Reduction Method

In addition to the hydrogen reduction method, there is a tungsten oxide carbon reduction method used in the preparation of tungsten powder and the reduction temperature was higher than 1050℃. The purity of tungsten powder obtained by this method is low.

In addition, the technological research work of reducing tungsten oxide with aluminum, calcium, zinc, etc. is also in progress.

Conclusion 

Thank you for reading our article, and we hope this article can let you have a better understanding of tungsten powder uses and its production methods. If you want to know more about tungsten power and other refractory metals, you can visit Advanced Refractory Metals (ARM) for more information.

Headquartered in Lake Forest, California, Advanced Refractory Metals (ARM) is a top manufacturer & supplier of refractory metals across the world. We provide our customers with high-quality refractory metal products like tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, rhenium, titanium, and zirconium at a very competitive price.