In today's world, the level of high-end manufacturing in a country determines the overall level of its military industry and civil industry, while high-end new materials directly determine the level of high-end manufacturing. High - purity zirconium and hafnium are excellent examples of high - end new materials.
Zirconium and hafnium, which are considered to be two special metal materials, have no special significance. But, in fact, zirconium has unique performance, including child absorption cross section is small, the high temperature and high pressure has excellent corrosion resistance, and the water inside a nuclear reactor and has the good radiation resistance, and is often used for nuclear reactor fuel cladding materials and the structure of core materials.
And hafnium has plasticity, easy processing and the characteristics of high temperature resistant, corrosion resistant, hafnium thermal neutron capture cross section is large, is the ideal neutron absorber, can be used as atomic reactor control and protection devices.
Zirconium and hafnium high temperature resistant, corrosion resistant radial and has unique performance, making them not only in the nuclear military industry, nuclear power and other industrial structure material cladding and can be used separately to reactor, the reactor control material, and in machinery manufacturing, oil chemical industry, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, electronics and other fields are widely used. The materials of zirconium and hafnium needed for nuclear industry application are rare metal materials.
Now China's nuclear power use of zirconium tube and zirconium alloys due to the limited by separation technology, product development and application of also has the very big disparity compared with abroad, cause this kind of material is still dependent on imports.
Zhu Xingfeng is introduced, the high purity zirconium and hafnium market share in the world today is accounted for by several countries to method, such as the United States, Russia is the world's major producing countries, like France's stuffed with cheese company nuclear zirconium sponge production is about 2000 tons/year, Germany and other European countries have formed the corresponding zirconium processing products production capacity.
In the field of nuclear military industry, the total demand for nuclear zirconium and hafnium is increasing rapidly with the upgrading and upgrading of China's military vessels and equipment such as aircraft carriers and the development of military industry. It is reported that a 30000 - horsepower zirconium alloy used in the submarine reached 20-30 tons, only to realize high purity zirconium and hafnium products localization, industrialization, to speed up China's high-end military industry and civilian industry industrial upgrading and sustainable and healthy development.
Zirconium and hafnium materials for other manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace, aircraft manufacturing, and free of hafnium nano zirconia in special cutting tool industry, ceramic industry, fiber optic connectors, widely used in the field of special machinery spare parts and other manufacturing, also has the "add to where where high-end" broad market prospect.
