Why are Darts Made of Tungsten Alloy? (2/2)

In the last article, we talked about the brief history of darts and the fact that tungsten alloy got more and more popular in darts. Now let’s have a deeper understanding of the application of tungsten alloy in darts.

1.0 The Importance of Dart Weight

The introduction of tungsten darts revolutionized the game, and this is not an exaggeration. Tungsten darts allowed two mutually interrelated things to happen. As darts became smaller, they also became heavier, and heavier darts radically improved player’s scores! A tungsten dart, being heavier than a brass or plastic dart, will fly through the air in a straighter line and with more force; which means bounce outs are less likely to happen. Therefore, heavier darts provided players with more control during the throw and made tighter grouping more likely. Anyone that knows about the intricacies of darts scoring systems will tell you about the importance of being able to place darts in tight groups consistently. Being able to place darts in tight groups consistently will make you an overall more balanced player of the game. Not being able to hit 180s all the time is not so bad when you can knock down a checkout on demand and hit doubles all the time.

2.0 The Perfect Metal for A Dart Tungsten Percentages and Composition

Tungsten darts are not a one size fit all affair, there are quite a few options when it comes to choosing to purchase a tungsten dart. Because of the chemical properties of the metal and various practical reasons during manufacture, darts made of tungsten are not 100% pure. Heavy metal alloys made of tungsten and nickel are used: with nickel-iron and nickel-copper matrices being the most common. These heavy metal alloys allow for enhanced machinability and permit manufacturers of darts to offer products with higher rigidity, lower vibration, higher damping, and reduce thermal expansion properties.

The most common compositions available on the market are:

• 65% Tungsten – 35% Nickel

• 80% Tungsten – 20% Nickel

• 90% Tungsten – 10% Nickel

• 95% Tungsten – 05% Nickel

• 97% Tungsten – 03% Nickel

3.0 The Perfect Metal for A Dart

One of the most defining characteristics of tungsten metal and its alloys is its density. Tungsten density is almost twice that of lead and is comparable to that of uranium. For those of you who do not remember your high school science lessons, density is a function of mass and volume, which means that a substance with a high-density value can have a smaller size while maintaining the same mass. In laymen’s terms, if you have two objects of equal weight but with different densities, the denser object will also be the smaller. A 30-gram dart made of tungsten will be approximately half the diameter of a 30-gram dart made out of brass!

Some people will say that tungsten darts should not be recommended to beginners and that only advanced players and professionals benefit from the added control; however, anyone who is serious about getting better at the game should invest in tungsten darts from the get-go.

Even though tungsten darts are more costly to make and therefore a more expensive purchase, the benefits that this most important of metals provides cannot be easily dismissed.

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