Tantalum is a ductile, grey shiny metal. The name originates from Tantalos (Greek mythology: torments of Tantalus – sustain horrible thirst) and refers to the characteristic of Tantalum-oxide Ta2O5, not to form salts together with acids. It derives mainly from Tantalum containing Copper or Tin ores and slags (Tantalite or Coltan). Economically, significant resources can be found in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Thailand and others. A large part of Tantalum is mainly used for electrical capacitors. Besides the use as an alloying element for the steel industry or as Tantalum-Carbide in cemented carbides, Tantalum metal is used in various fields of industry.
Tantalum is used as pure metal or as an alloy in the process industry for manufacturing vessels, stirrers, tubes and heat exchangers, for medical implants, markers and surgical instruments as well as for high temperature application for heating elements, heat shielding and other components.
Compared with pure Tantalum, this alloy has a better strength, particularly a better high temperature strength.
Compared with pure Tantalum and TaW2.5 this alloy has a considerably increased strength up to very high temperatures. Due to the difficult processing and manufacturing the availability of many semi-finished parts is restricted.
Foils, strips, ribbons, sheets, plates, wires, rods, tubes, sputtering targets, evaporation boats, crucibles, filaments, heaters, high temperature components, standard fabricated components (screws, nuts and others) and parts according to drawings.