A typical tungsten alloy EFP (explosively formed penetrators) warhead mainly consists of shaped charge liners, high explosive, shells and initiation system. The shaped charge liners and explosive component are usually fixed by pressure screw.

When the tungsten alloy EFP exploding, the shaped charge liners squeeze, roll over and stretch into penetrators whose shape is expected and speed up to 2000m/s under the effect of Chapman-Jouguet pressure. It can damage efficiently to armor target in the range of charge diameter whose bursting height is more than 1000 times. The maximum depth of penetration can reach more than one time charge diameter. So it is possible to attack the weakest top of armor vehicle from far (long) distance.


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WHAs (tungsten heavy alloys) provide a unique combination of density, mechanical strength, machinability, corrosion resistance, and economy. Consequently, WHAs are widely used for counterweights, inertial masses, radiation shielding, sporting goods, and ordnance products.  These versatile materials provide distinct advantages when compared to alternate high density materials, as seen in the table below.

As can be seen from these data, WHA overcomes the toxicity, deformability, and inferior density of lead and its alloys.  Likewise, it can provide equivalent density to depleted uranium (DU) but without the special machining considerations (necessary due to its pyrophoricity) and licensing requirements for a radioactive substance.  WHA is truly the material of choice for high density applications.  These unique alloys provide the designer with many new freedoms.

There is one special category of density applications in which WHAs should not be used.  For applications in which the service temperature will exceed ~300°C, slight surface oxidation will occur in air.  It is important to note that at service temperatures exceeding ~500°C, WHA strength will fall off rapidly even in a protective atmosphere.  For these special cases, pure tungsten may provide a better option.  If reactive atmospheres are present in combination with elevated temperature, the best choice for very dense materials will be the platinum group metals – but at extremely high cost.


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Tungsten heavy alloy (WHA) are ideally suited to a wide range of density applications, offering a density approaching that of pure tungsten but without the very costly processing and inherent size and shape limitations of the former.  WHAs are produced by a powder metallurgy (P/M) technique known as liquid phase sintering (LPS), in which completely dense, fully alloyed parts are formed from pressed metal powders at a temperature less than half the melting point of pure tungsten.   While sintered steel and copper alloy parts commonly contain significant residual porosity that may require polymeric infiltrants to seal, sintered WHAs have a nonporous surface.

WHA parts are manufactured from very fine, high purity metal powders – typically tungsten, nickel, and iron.  The blended metal powder is compacted under high pressure (up to 30 ksi) to form a specific shape that is very close to the geometry of the final part.  By utilizing this near net shape forming approach, economy is realized by the elimination of excess material and the time and energy necessary to remove unwanted stock from mill shapes.  Pressed parts are then subjected to high temperature sintering in hydrogen.  As the parts are slowly heated, the hydrogen reduces metal oxides present and provides a clean, active surface on each of the very small metal particles.  As temperature increases further, chemical diffusion takes place between particles.  Neck growth occurs between particles, and surface energy drives pore elimination and part densification.  The pressed part shrinks uniformly, with about 20% linear shrinkage (equating to approximately 50% volumetric shrinkage) being typical.  Once the temperature is sufficiently high to form the liquid phase, any remaining densification occurs very quickly as the alloy assumes a "spheroidized" microstructure by a mechanism know as Ostwald Ripening.  The sintered structure of a common commercial WHA is two-phase, consisting of a linked network of tungsten spheroids contained in the ductile matrix phase.


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The name "tungsten" is derived from the Swedish term meaning "heavy stone".  Tungsten has been assigned the chemical symbol W after its German name wolfram.  While sometimes regarded as a scarce or exotic metal, its abundance in nature is actually about the same as that of copper.  The largest known tungsten reserves are in mainland China, though plentiful reserves also exist in North America.

Tungsten has the highest melting point (3410°C or 6170°F) of all metals.  The extremely high melting point of pure tungsten makes all the common manufacturing techniques used for metals such as iron impractical.  Specialized methods make possible the processing of pure tungsten into rod, sheet, and wire for a wide variety of high temperature applications including incandescent lamp wire, TIG welding electrodes, and high temperature heat shielding.

Another important industrial property of tungsten is its high density of 19.3 g/cc (0.70 lbs/in³).  In addition to high gravimetric density, its high radiographic density makes it an ideal material for shielding or collimating energetic x- and g-radiation.  For such applications, tungsten is commonly alloyed in order to circumvent the extremely high processing temperatures that would otherwise be required to melt and cast the pure metal. 


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In August of 1986 the last revision of the “Proposed Military Specification” for Tungsten Base Metal, High Density (MIL-T-21014D) was issued. In use for many years this specification defined the requirements for four classes of machinable, high density tungsten base metal produced by consolidating metal powder mixtures comprised primarily of tungsten. The alloy classes differed in tungsten content and density. The specification defined four slightly magnetic tungsten alloys (containing Ni-Fe binders) and three nonmagnetic tungsten alloys (containing Ni-Cu binders) in terms of their composition, mechanical properties, and machinability. ASTM approved a standard containing essentially the same content in 1987. The most recent revision of the ASTM standard (ASTM B777-07) was published in November of 2007 and is the active standard for tungsten alloys at this time. A third standard was introduced in August of 1998 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE Technical Standard AMS-T-21014). All three of these standards contained the same set of mechanical properties for the various alloy classes. These properties are summarized in the table below.

On May 29^th 2013, there was an article in South China Morning Post of Hong Kong named as 3D Printer Promotes the Development of Chinese aircraft. For aircraft enthusiasts, it is not a dream that use computer and 3D printer to manufacture a small plastic aircraft. How about manufacturing a real aircraft?

The Chinese scientists and aeronautical engineer consider that can be realized. They have began to use 3D printer to manufacturer refractory metal aircraft parts without molding, forging, assembling or other traditional manufacturing processes.

3D printing, also called as laser rapid prototyping is a newly developing manufacturing technique. 3D printers can transform blueprint on computer into material object directly by overlying materials layer by layer until finished products.

Refractory metal aircraft parts, being manufactured by 3D printing technique have been widely used for C-919 the first Chinese civil aircraft, J-15 the first carrier fight, J-16 multipurpose fighter-bomber, J-20 the first Chinese stealth fighter and J-31 the fifth generation fighter.

Traditional aviation industry not only spends too much time, and it also wastes a lot of materials. In generally, only 10 percent of raw materials are utilized. The rest are lost during the processes of molding, forging, cutting and burnishing. F-22 fighter which developed by Lockheed Martin in the U.S. needs 2796kg titanium alloy. In fact, only 144kg is utilized.

Sidney Wong, the associate dean of Enterprise Development Department in Hong Kong Polytechnic University showed that 3D printing technique could accelerate the development of Chinese new generation aircraft. He said, “3D printing technique can save time and materials. Researchers can print refractory metal aircraft parts directly in a short time. The cost of prototype is low without molding or any other complicated traditional processes and scientists can manufacture constantly more repetitions for test.”

Professor Wang Huaming, the expert of aerial material in Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics considered that Chinese 3D printing technique had exceeded the U.S. because the U.S. could only manufacture small products by using the technique. However, Luo Jun, the CEO of Asian Manufacturing Association in Beijing considered that the Chinese printing technique still fell behind the West.


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There are various kinds of test for penetration of EFP (explosively formed penetrators). The first method is utilizing impulse X radiography to know the speed and attitude of EFP before or after penetrating, residues of EFP after penetrating and the fragments after penetrating target. Because strong flashing light and smoke accompany with the process of penetrating. For that, the only method to know the influence of EFP on target and the situation after penetrating target is adopting X-ray radiography. So impulse X-ray radiography has significance for research on penetrating mechanism of EFP. However X-ray may do harm to health during test. So the protection to researchers is necessary. Tungsten alloy shielding tube is made of tungsten alloy for protecting researchers from damaging of X-ray. Tungsten alloy shielding tube has good performance of radiation to radioactive substance for the high density of tungsten alloy. Otherwise, compared with lead, tungsten alloy is more environmentally friendly，and tungsten alloy is non-toxic and non-radioactive.

In the middle of the 19th century tungsten was introduced to technical applications, mainly in steel production.  From then until the first quarter of the 20th century, its importance in this field steadily rose and steel became the biggest tungsten consumer.  Tungsten was among the first alloying elements systematically studied and used to improve steel properties, for example hardness, cutting efficiency and cutting speed of tool steels.  Different tungsten containing steels were developed in Austria, Germany, France and England, followed by high speed steels in the USA.  Pioneers in the field of tungsten applications in steel making were Franz Köller, Franz Mayr, Robert Mushet, Sir Robert Hadfield, Frederick Winslow Taylor and Mansel White.

The addition of tungsten to construction steels has decreased since 1940 because alloying with Mo and Cr, as well as with V and Ni, yielded better performance at a lower price.  From 1927, when cemented carbides (hardmetals) were developed, the production of total tungsten consumed in steelmaking declined constantly to a current figure of about 20%, but nevertheless steel is today the second biggest consumer.  This percentage is the average for demand worldwide but in different markets tungsten consumption of steel differs considerably, from 2% in the USA to about 10% in Europe and Japan and about 30% in Russia and China.


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Tungsten is a refractory metal with a high melting point and a very high density. It can be used in a pure form but it becomes more useful as an engineering material when alloyed with small quantities of other elements to form a group of products sometimes referred to as Tungsten Heavy Metal Alloys (WHAs). These alloys usually contain 90-97% tungsten and initial forming requires a process of pressing and sintering. Wrought shapes can then be produced however near-final-shape sintering is more common.

Most of the major applications for tungsten alloys are based on its very high density where it is used to control or distribute weight in some way. Tungsten is up to 65% denser than lead and 130% denser than steel. Radiation shielding is a second common application area. Tungsten alloys generally have high strength and good creep resistance however at low temperatures ductility is poor making it unsuitable for some applications. Corrosion resistance and magnetic properties can also be factors in alloy selection.

Tungsten can be used in a granular form to provide balance weight when used as simple ballast. However, more advanced applications form an actual component out of a suitable tungsten alloy making it a functioning part of a final assembly. Examples of this are found in aerospace (wing balances), defence (missile fin balance) and motorsport. Other application areas include computer disk balances, ordnance (kinetic energy penetration), marine balancing components and gyroscope components.


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Put powder raw materials into printer and then you can produce whatever you need such as toys, models, faking artifact, automobile components and even human organs by the influences of laser. The technique is called as 3D printing technique which is popular around the world and being consider as “ improving the realization of the third Industrial Revolution” by The British Economist.

Generally, people always consider that the U.S. is leading the industrial revolution. However, some news coming from China is shocking.

Those news shows that China has become the only nation which has hold lasing forming manufacturing technique of main bearing refractory metal parts and put the technique into application. By using 3D printing technique of refractory metal aircraft parts, it is the first time that China becomes the forefront of advanced level around the world in aerial materials industry.

Contributors for blowout of Chinese advanced fighters

Recently, in China Beijing international high-tech Expo, AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) and Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics shows the whole aircraft key refractory metal aircraft parts which are being manufactured by 3D printing technique and rewarded for the first prize of State Technological Invention Award, and a 5m² strengthen frame.

The foreign medium report that 3D printing technique is being widely used for the development of J-15 the first Chinese carrier aircraft, J-16 multirole combat aircraft, J-20 the fifth generation heavy fighters, J-31 the fifth generation medium fighters and C919 civil aircraft.

News Channel of CCTV reports that the main bearing refractory metal aircraft parts, being manufactured by 3D printing technique have been widely used for J-15, including the whole former landing chassis.

The application of 3D printing technique speeds up the development of Chinese advanced fighters. Relying on low cost and high speed of laser refractory metal aircraft parts forming technique, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation can assemble J-15, J-16, J-31 and other fighters and test flight in a year.

By adopting 3D printing technique, refractory metal aircraft parts which have complicated or special structure can take shape once without forging one by one and welding together, high improving the strength of fuselage.

According to the estimate, if refractory metal aircraft parts in F-22 are manufactured by Chinese 3D printing technique, the weight will decrease by 40% under the same strength. That will highly improve the thrust weight ratio and the properties of fighters.


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