Working with Tantalum and Tantalum Alloys

摘要

Tantalum materials have been used in electronic, chemical processing, and other industries for manyyears. Solid tantalum shapes are readily produced using conventional ingot metallurgy followed bythermomechanical processing. Alloying tantalum with tungsten improves mechanical strength as wellas corrosion resistance without degrading the other physical properties of pure tantalum. Improvementsin fabrication and inspection techniques have pushed tantalum fabrications into applications were longterm chemical stability and moderate strength are important. Since it is a reactive metal, certainprecautions are necessary when fabricating tantalum components. This paper will discuss theprocessing, design and fabrication, and some failure analyses of tantalum components.