Ferrotungsten

About

Tungsten is an important alloying element in high-speed and other tool steels and is used to a lesser extent in some stainless and structural steels. Tungsten is often added to steel melts as ferrotungsten, which can contain up to 80% tungsten Commercial ferro-tungsten contains between 75 and 85% W. It has a steel grey appearance and a fine-grained structure consisting of FeW and Fe2W. It is supplied in 80-100 mm lumps.

Properties

Tungsten is one of the heaviest metals and has the highest melting point of any element except carbon (3422 o C, 6192 o F), the lowest vapor pressure (at temperatures above 1650 o C, 3000 o F) very high thermal creep resistance, and the highest tensile strength. It is extremely resistant to corrosion and can be attacked only slightly by most mineral acids. One of the primary benefits of adding Ferro Tungsten to an alloy is to increase the alloy's melting point, making it suitable for aerospace applications as well as welding applications. Additionally, by adding Ferro Tungsten to an alloy, one can take advantage of tungsten's unique electrical capabilities as a conductor.

PRODUCTION OF FERRO TUNGSTEN

World tungsten resources are geographically widespread . A large portion of the global Ferro Tungsten supply is manufactured in China, Bolivia, Portugal and Russia. Tungsten is found in these minerals: wolframite, scheelite, ferberite and hubnerite. The most basic definition of the Ferro Tungsten production process would be that the minerals are mined and converted to tungsten oxide and then heated with hydrogen or carbon to produce a powdered form that is mixed with iron..

Uses

• Ferro Tungsten is used as an additive in steel smelting or alloy materials.
• These superalloys that employ Ferro Tungsten are used in the production of turbine blades and other wear-resistant coatings and parts.

Substitutes

Potential substitutes for other applications are as follows: molybdenum for certain tungsten mill products; molybdenum steels for tungsten steels; lighting based on carbon nanotube filaments, induction technology, and light-emitting diodes for lighting based on tungsten electrodes or filaments; depleted uranium or lead for tungsten or tungsten alloys in applications requiring high-density or the ability to shield radiation; and depleted uranium alloys or hardened steel for cemented tungsten carbides or tungsten alloys in armor-piercing projectiles. In some applications, substitution would result in increased cost or a loss in product performance.