The construction of complex tungsten collimators with a high number of pinholes or loft holes becomes very expensive with the current available techniques (drilling, milling or electric discharge machining). All these techniques are subtractive techniques; the process starts with a solid plate and the holes are made by removing material. The main factor determining the cost is the production time and the amount of required material. The production time is related to the amount of holes and the complexity of the holes. Other materials like gold or platinum that are easier to machine are very expensive, alternative techniques like cold casting with tungsten epoxy result in a lower density (close to lead, 11g/cm^3). This results in transmission of high energy peaks in the emission spectrum through the plate and to a relative high amount of pinhole edge penetration. The new technique called novel technique has been found for collimator construction, called metal additive manufacturing. The collimator is build up in layers using selective laser melting of tungsten powders.

Methods: A collimator design with 20 loft holes with 0.5 mm pinhole opening was designed in CAD software and the resulting STL file was sent to the rapid prototyping company. Within 2 weeks the collimator (16 mm thick and 48x48 mm transverse size) was produced. The density of the collimator was determined by determining the volume (in the CAD program) and measuring the weight. The collimator was attached to a compact high resolution Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography detector (SPECT detector) and a point source has been measured.

Results: The predicted accuracy of this rapid prototyping technique is +/- 50 micron. The density of the material is 16.9g/cm^3. A point source located 2cm in front of the collimator is seen by all apertures. Metal additive manufacturing allows fast prototype collimator design of very complex shapes. The density is close to tungsten (87%). The cost of this technique is only related to the amount of material needed.

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Tungsten market: Luomu ≤30 billion yuan to set up self-financing tungsten business Shouchu a special fund intended to tungsten concentrate mainly on tungsten raw product prices in the vicinity of existing commercial reserve, is expected to total purchasing and storage no more than 46,000 tons (equivalent to standard tungsten concentrate). Luomu this initiative or to some extent on the tungsten concentrate prices stabilized, difficult to pull back in the short term ore price upward.

Molybdenum market: the whole molybdenum market kept falling, the actual pressure mine huge molybdenum mine is currently facing serious overcapacity of production, far less than the actual demand and oversupply has not changed. Facing distress situation, mining companies can continue to lower prices to survive, the latter mine cut-off phenomenon will be further expanded. Bidding steel prices hit record lows, ferromolybdenum market lacks support. Molybdenum oxide, molybdenum products are also difficult. Short-term difficult to see the dawn of the molybdenum market.


Tungsten Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email:  sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten & Molybdenum Information Bank: http://i.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com
Molybdenum News & Molybdenum Price: http://news.molybdenum.com.cn

Luo molybdenum announcement that the proposed scale of not more than 3 billion yuan to set up a tungsten business Shouchu special fund be used for tungsten concentrate price commercial purchasing and storage, purchasing and storage is expected to total no more than 46,000 tons, accounting for the total domestic tungsten concentrate yield 1/3. This means that the industry's first commercial support for purchasing and storage fund was established specifically tungsten, tungsten price downturn is expected to inject a shot in the arm.

Tungsten price in the doldrums, more cost-effective mine Shouchu previous close. By the downstream demand downturn, tungsten prices continued downward, currently wolframite (65%) of the price is only 79,000 yuan / ton. Most of the tungsten ore into the loss, the equivalent of a low cost of purchasing and storage enterprises business acquisitions tungsten resources, help strengthen the domestic tungsten resources industry pricing, while countries also support domestic resources for strategic purchasing and storage business in order to stabilize prices.

Luomu ≤30 billion yuan to set up self-financing tungsten business Shouchu a special fund intended to tungsten concentrate mainly on tungsten raw product prices in the vicinity of existing commercial purchasing and storage, purchasing and storage is expected to total no more than 46,000 ton (equivalent to standard tungsten concentrate). Luomu this initiative or to some extent on the tungsten concentrate prices stabilized, difficult to pull back in the short term ore price upward. Expected short-term or temporarily lower ore price correction based.

Macro, implicated by the Greek debt crisis, global commodity and financial market crash; the central bank recapture liquidity, lower interest rates across the board; Commerce Department: the new FTA absorb foreign capital accumulation effect is obvious.


Tungsten Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinatungsten.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email:  sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten & Molybdenum Information Bank: http://i.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com
Molybdenum News & Molybdenum Price: http://news.molybdenum.com.cn