Rods and round bars are the most common industrial semifinished products. Combined with useful wolfram properties these products are applied in very critical industries. Welds, electronic devices, heating elements are used in many technological processes in different spheres and wolfram rods are used in most of them. These universal semifinished products are used as primary blanks for producing round products with small diameter.
For purchasing wolfram rods and round bars at Metotechnics company please contact us as convenient for you - via e-mail, by phone or on our website. We will answer all your product-related questions and will help you to choose the required items.
The methods of production, grades and application recommendations are described in the corresponding sections of this page.
Grades
Rods and round bars are made of WA, WRN, WL, WY-20, VT tungsten. All given grades have 99.9% of tungsten. For improving the alloy properties different additives are used. As a rule, they contain the following components: thorium, lanthanum, yttrium, silicon, aluminium. WA and WRN contain a silica alkaline and aluminium additive, WL - lanthanum oxide additive, WT - thorium oxide, WY-20 - yttrium oxides.
The chemical composition of the provided materials is described in GOST 23949-80, TC 48-19-221-83, TC 48-19-27-88, TC 48-19-59-87 standards.
Production
Wolfram rods and round bars are forged, i.e. pressurized. Billets are used as primary raw materials. They are forged with a swaging machine. Due to W properties this metal should be processed after heating. It is forged in several stages, each for making a semifinished product of lower diameter. Tungsten rod with Ø about 3 mm and less is often made by drawing.
Wolfram round bars are not processed thermally or chemically. The surface of products of some grades or diameters is polished. This operation belongs to mechanical processing. Also it should be mentioned that wolfram round bar should be straight. This property is an important requirement given in all regulatory documents for making these products.
Wolfram rods and round bars should comply with the requirements of some GOSTs and TC such as GOST 23949-80, TC 48-19-221-83, TC 48-19-27-88, TC 48-19-59-87 etc. They regulate the product sizes and extreme tolerances, supply condition, mechanical properties, marking and the packing.
Very often wolfram round rods are called “round bars”. This is true for semifinished products of a large diameter. GOST 25501-82 does not provide a definition for a round bar for blanks and semifinished products, but in practice such name is used for round rods of a large diameter.
Application
Rods are usually applied for making nonconsumable electrodes used for welding. A filler wire is required for this. It melts with the metal of the welded elements and forms a molten weld pool. Wolfram electrodes are used for welding non-ferrous metals and alloys, high alloyed steels or when a highly-durable weld is required. They are also widely used in argon-arc welding. It should be mentioned that the welded components can have a different chemical composition. Among the industrial electrodes, the following should be mentioned: WL-15 (W with lanthanum oxide additive), WT-20 (W with thorium oxide additive), WY-20 (W с with yttrium oxide additive), WP (pure wolfram). Such products have a specific length and colour marking. Also WA, WL, WT, WY-20 rods can be used for welding.
Wolfram rods are also applied for making heaters of high-temperature furnaces. Such heater are intended for working in hydrogen, inert gas or vacuum.
Also these semifinished products can be used as radio tube cathodes, electronic and gas discharge devices.
Prices
Availability of wolfram rods and round bars so as their cost are given on Prices page. Also these products can be ordered on our website.