Application of niobium alloy

Over the years, sheet alloys have been widely used in many engineering fields and products, such as alloying steel and active metals with Nb; as anodes for cathodic protection; used in superconductors, rocket nozzles, spacecraft rivets, high-pressure sodium lamps, etc. To sum up, the application of niobium alloy in engineering and high-tech has the following aspects: application in high-temperature engineering. When it is to be used in a high-temperature environment and to ensure strength, niobium alloys can be used to replace heavy metal elements such as tungsten or tantalum. In these applications, creep strength and anti-oxidation coating are the main considerations.

Because the sheet has excellent comprehensive properties in refractory metals: higher melting point, lowest density, highest specific strength in the range of 1093~1427℃, and good plasticity and good workability at temperatures as low as -200℃, making it a Thermal protection materials and structural materials preferred for aerospace. But its high-temperature oxidation resistance is not good, and it must have an oxidation-resistant coating above 450°C.

When niobium alloy is used in aerospace engineering, the parts that need to be protected are turbine blades, afterburner linings, and hypersonic low-temperature high-tech applications. Since the emergence of niobium-based superconductors in 1954, people have been studying its performance while continuing to explore its practical applications. Niobium alloys have further applications in superconductivity. The Nb-47Ti superconducting alloy can be made into copper-clad wires, which are used in magnetic vibrator imaging magnets and high-energy physics, such as magnetic detectors and magnetic beam processing devices. It can also be applied to magnetic shielding niobium-based wires/cables for fusion reactors; high-purity niobium-based superconductors in cavity resonators of high-energy physics equipment, etc. The current situation shows that niobium titanium conductors are mainly used for magnetic fields (<10T), while Nb3Sn conductors are mainly used for high magnetic fields (>10~15T).

From the market point of view, the film-based superconductor market can be divided into commercial and project-based, the former such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), etc., and the latter such as the large hadron collider and polynuclear reactor (ITER) projects. And so on, the most important uses of superconductors, such as MRI, NMR, polynuclear reactors and high-energy physics.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool in medicine, biology and pharmacology. In terms of current functions, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly becoming a mature diagnostic tool, and magnetic resonance imaging is a niobium superconductor The biggest application aspect of the material. At the beginning of the 21st century, more than 2,000 units are produced globally each year, and the estimated equipment base is about 12,000.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has also become a powerful analysis tool in the fields of chemistry, biology, medicine and materials research. For example, in MRI, the magnetic resonance of atomic nuclei is studied; in NMR spectroscopy, the spectrum of a certain isotope under study is recorded and analyzed to obtain molecular structure information in the sample. NMR spectrometers are widely used by chemical, biological sciences, biomedical companies, universities, and scientific research institutions. They are used in standard testing (such as quality control) and current scientific research.

Polynuclear reactor technology provides another option for future electricity production. The main source of energy is the reaction of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, to produce helium and neutrons. Protons carry most of the energy, which is then converted into electrical energy. Polynuclear reactors occur at very high temperatures. Only in this way can matter exist in a plasma state composed of added particles. Plasma cannot be placed in a container, but can only be confined by a magnetic field. In the past few decades, polynuclear reactors have moved forward, driven by the application of more and more magnet system experiments. In order to obtain good magnetic field confinement, the geometry of the polynuclear reaction device is ring-shaped, and only in this way can the magnetic field lines of the magnetic field be closed. Among them, the use of Nb3Sn material can live a very high magnetic field (typically 12~3T), and NbTi can be used up to 8T, but the geometry of the magnet system is more complicated.

Accelerator technology and high-energy physics and niobium-based superconductors have actually coexisted closely for nearly 40 years. Radio frequency holes are used today to provide effective acceleration of ion beams, while NbTi conductors are used as wire beam magnets. The wire beam is bent and concentrated in the detector magnet, the particles in the detector collide, and the particles generated by the collision need to be detected and analyzed. From the early days of superconductor technology research, these uses have acted as a driving force for technological development. For example, the development of NbTi conductor technology with niobium diffusion barrier ultra-fine wire is associated with accelerator magnets.

The application of niobium alloy materials in the lighting industry. More than 30 years ago, at the Newark facility in Westinghouse, the sodium vapor lamp was illuminated for the first time. When the lamp was first designed, the end caps and lead wires of the key metal elements in contact with the quartz arc tube with sodium vapor inside were made of tantalum. After being put into production, niobium components quickly replaced tantalum end caps and leads. Compared with tantalum, the corrosion resistance of niobium to high-pressure sodium is similar to that of tantalum, but it saves 75% of the cost. Nowadays, Nb-1Zr is the best material for manufacturing key technical components in high pressure sodium lamps (HPS). In addition, niobium alloys are widely used in the electronics industry, automobiles, biomedical and other fields.