TUNGSTEN

What Is Tungsten and Where Do I Use It?

Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a shiny, silvery-white metal.
It has the highest melting point of all metals and is alloyed with other metals to strengthen them. Tungsten and its alloys are used in many high-temperature applications, such as arc-welding electrodes and heating elements in high-temperature furnaces.
It is used in electronics, coating and joining technology, the automotive and aerospace industries, medical technology, the tooling industry and power engineering.
Tungsten carbide is immensely hard and is very important to the metal-working, mining and petroleum industries. It is made by mixing tungsten powder and carbon powder and heating to 2200°C. It makes excellent cutting and drilling tools, including a new ‘painless’ dental drill which spins at ultra-high speeds.

China is the major producer of primary tungsten.
The other principal producing countries are Austria, Bolivia, Canada, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Thailand and several countries in Africa.
Some mines which have closed in recent decades in Australia, South Korea and the USA are now considering re-opening.

Due to its unique properties, tungsten, tungsten alloys and some tungsten compounds cannot be substituted in many important applications in different fields of modern technology.
China - the world’s largest supplier of tungsten ores, concentrates and intermediates - has placed restrictions on exports of these materials.
The export quota for tungsten has been falling over time, reducing from 15,700 tonnes to 15,400 tonnes between 2011 and 2012.