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Introduction to Tungsten
time2018/09/19
Introduction to Tungsten
1. What is Tungsten?
Tungsten is a metal which is also known as wolfram and is extracted from its ores - wolframite and scheelite. This element was identified as a new element in the 1781 and as an isolated element in the year1783. This is a rare and a hard chemical element which has the highest melting point, high tensile strength, high density and low vapor pressure. Tungsten's atomic number is 74 and is denoted a symbol W. The word tungsten comes from a Swedish word -Tung Sten, which means heavy stone.
2. Occurrence of tungsten
Tungsten metal is found to be naturally occurring in minerals wolframite, ferberite, scheelite and hubrenite. At present, China is the largest tungsten producer while most of the remaining production comes from Russia, Canada and Bolivia.To obtain tungsten from its ores, tungsten ores are crushed, cleaned and treated with alkalis for obtaining tungsten trioxide. After this, tungsten trioxide is heated with carbon or hydrogen gas to obtain the tungsten metal and carbon dioxide or water vapor and tungsten metal.
3. Major applications of tungsten
A. Alloys
Due to extreme hardness and density, tungsten is often used to obtain hard metal alloys. Its high melting point makes it a good material for making rocket nozzles, turbine blades and wear resistant parts etc. The alloys of tungsten are used in automotive industry and the aerospace industry as well.
B. Electronics
Tungsten is used in making many electronic types of equipment such as light bulbs, cathode ray tubes, vacuum tube filaments, heating elements, electronic contacts etc. Some other equipment which can be made using tungsten is field emission guns, electron microscopes and transistors, etc.
C. Gold substitution
Since the density of tungsten is very high and is quite similar to that of gold, it can be used as a gold substitute and is used for making Jewelry, etc. It is used for making resist which are resistant to scratching and counterfeiting of gold bars, etc.
