Zirconium and zirconium alloys are silver-white metals with very low thermal neutron absorption cross sections and excellent corrosion resistance, machining and welding properties.
Because of its outstanding nuclear properties and excellent corrosion resistance, zirconium and zirconium alloys are a key application area in the atomic energy industry, where they are commonly used as materials for the construction, cladding and control rods of nuclear reactors.
At the same time, because of the excellent corrosion resistance of zirconium and zirconium alloy acid, alkali and other medium characteristics, commonly used to manufacture corrosion resistant reaction tower, pump, heat exchanger, valve, nozzle and other special-shaped components.
In addition, zirconium is also a non-toxic biocompatible metal. Compared to other biocompatible metal materials in use today, zirconium and its alloys have two unique properties for orthopedic and dental implant applications, in addition to excellent mechanical properties and excellent corrosion resistance.
One is the formation of an inherent bone-like intermediate layer in the human environment, and the other is the low magnetic susceptibility, which is particularly important for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), giving zirconium and zirconium alloys a huge basis for use in human implants.
Zirconium and zirconium alloy parts are manufactured or implants are developed using additive manufacturing techniques, in which a model of the target part is designed using CAD, and then the solid parts are fabricated by melting the accumulated powder layer by layer on the additive manufacturing equipment using zirconium and zirconium alloy powder as raw material.
Compared with traditional processing technology, additive manufacturing of zirconium and zirconium alloy can not only ensure the excellent corrosion resistance of zirconium and zirconium alloy, but also greatly shorten the processing time of parts, improve the utilization rate of raw materials and save manufacturing costs.
In addition, additive manufacturing technology that enables rapid manufacturing of any shape can optimize the structural design of target parts, reduce weight, and reduce material waste.
