Practical Applications For Tungsten Wire

In addition to being essential to the production of coiled lamp filaments for lighting products, tungsten wire is useful for other goods where its high temperature properties are of value. For example, because tungsten expands at nearly the same rate as borosilicate glass, thicker wire sizes are straightened, finish­ground, and cut into rod pieces that are used for glass-to-metal seal lead parts in the lighting and electronic industries .
Tungsten wire is widely used in medical devices applications where electric current is utilized and where precision is critical. For instance, tungsten wire is used to make probes for the medical technique of electrocautery, where a metal probe is heated by electric current to a dull red glow and applied to the targeted tissue to cut and cauterize – basically, to remove an undesired growth and mitigate bleeding. The tungsten wire can be used in the form of a straight, tapered, solid probe or in lengths that can be curved into a loop that acts as a cutting tool. With its high melting point, tungsten holds its shape and does not flex or deform at the temperatures required to efficiently cut and cauterize tissue.

Despite not being a particularly conductive material, tungsten wire 1s highly valuable for the purposes of brain stimulation and neural probing, where the diameter of the wire must be incredibly small and narrow. At a small diameter and long length, tungsten wire maintains its straightness and shape -characteristics that are vital for directional accuracy – far more than any other metal. In addition, tungsten wire’s high tensile values offer a cost-effective alternative to specialty metals for steerable guide wires in minimally invasive medical procedures Its high density also makes tungsten wire highly radiopaque allowing it to excel in fluoroscopic applications .
For use in industrial furnaces, tungsten wire holds its shape at the highest temperatures, making it excellent for support structures, oven mats, and other weight-bearing surfaces that need to maintain the position of the object being subjected to the furnace temperatures. Tungsten wire’s heat resistance enables it to hold the object in the proper location in the hot zone without sagging, collapsing, falling apart, or otherwise moving the object out of the optimal position.

To be the only material suitable for the very high temperature required to turn pure molten silicon into a cylindrical crystal, which 1s then cooled, sliced into wafers, and polished to provide the substrates for semiconductors Additionally, tungsten wire is utilized in the probes used to test integrated circuits when they are still in monocrystalline wafer form.
Another industrial application in which tungsten wire’s high temperature properties prove to be indispensable is in the borescopes used to take measurements of the interior space of very high temperature environments. For areas that are inaccessible by other means, these borescopes are commonly used in the inspection of engines, turbines, pipes, and tanks .
With its extremely low vapor pressure at high temperatures, tungsten wire is also used in the vacuum metalizing coils utilized in the process of coating the surfaces of low-cost plastic products – such as toys, jewelry, cosmetic containers, and small decorative parts – with metal evaporates. The products or parts are placed in a vacuum with the coating metal, which is heated with the coils until it has evaporated; the vapor settles on the products/parts, quickly and completely coating the surfaces with a thin, uniform film of the metallic evaporate.