Ultra Fine Tungsten Wire Rope

Tungsten (also known as Wolfram, chemical symbol W, atomic number 74) is the metal with the highest melting point. Therefore, tungsten is commonly used in light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes, and arc welding electrodes. Due to its unique mechanical properties, tungsten has become an indispensable component in the manufacturing of many medical devices, including surgical robots today.

Ultra fine tungsten wire rope has become the preferred material for making micro mechanical wire ropes used in modern surgical robots, mainly due to its fatigue resistance and excellent tensile strength. With the excellent flexibility and wear resistance of tungsten, these innovative surgical applications have created miracles. On the other hand, if such robotic medical devices use stainless steel wire ropes, their service life will be greatly shortened, and the possibility of surgical failure will also increase.

Similarly, this type of tungsten wire rope can also be used to drive the movement of human arms, elbows, and wrists. By using tungsten wire ropes to drive the skeletal muscle movements of surgeons, instead of relying on their own bodies as in the past, robots can reduce the burden on doctors and prevent them from feeling tired or fatigued after performing multiple surgeries

Features of Tungsten Wire Rope:

Tungsten has long-term cost-effectiveness. Although the initial cost of tungsten wire rope is higher than that of equivalent stainless steel wire rope, over time, its performance will be better than that of stainless steel wire rope. Therefore, tungsten has a higher long-term cost-effectiveness.

With its two main advantages of long service life and flexibility, tungsten has become a more cost-effective material for manufacturing micro mechanical wire ropes for medical and industrial use.

The Service Life of Tungsten:

Due to the strong, flexible, and high-temperature resistant properties of tungsten, the tungsten wire rope made from it is sturdy and durable, requiring no maintenance or replacement for a long time. Firstly, tungsten is one of the strongest materials. The Mohs hardness of diamonds is 10, tungsten is 9, while stainless steel has a Mohs hardness of about 6.

Flexibility of Tungsten:

Tungsten has good flexibility in small bending radius. Stainless steel wire ropes may fail due to multiple cycles of bending stress under the same extremely small bending radius.

In mechanical wire rope applications that require good temperature resistance and excellent tensile strength, tungsten still performs well. 316 stainless steel melts at temperatures between 2500-2550°F, while tungsten only melts at temperatures up to 6192°F.

Other diameters and constructions are available on request. Please contact us for inquiries and advise on the diameter and construction required for your application. Diameter can be as small as 0.15 mm (construction: 1×7).

We also provide tungsten wire ropes in larger diameters. Please refer to Tungsten Wire Rope.

The performance characteristics of metal tungsten materials are high strength, high hardness and high brittleness at room temperature. Even if they are drawn into fine wires with a certain softness, they still belong to brittle materials. They show a certain plasticity and maintain good high-temperature strength properties only at high temperature. Therefore, pay attention to the following points when using tungsten wire ropes:

1. Before use, check the appearance and surface quality of the tungsten wire rope, and check whether there are hard marks such as hard injury, hard knot and hard fold caused by hard object impact. When winding the tungsten wire rope, check whether the tightness is uniform and appropriate. If the above problems are found, the use shall be stopped immediately.
2. The tungsten wire rope shall be handled with care during installation and use. In case of winding, it shall be slowly untied along the detour direction. It shall not be pulled by brute force, resulting in dead folding.
3. When loading, discharging, opening and closing the furnace door, be sure to wait until the mechanical device of the equipment runs to the specified position to avoid collision, extrusion and damage to the tungsten wire rope.
4. After the tungsten wire rope is used at high temperature, its internal organizational structure changes and its brittleness increases at room temperature. Therefore, during loading and unloading, gently tap the heavy hammer, collet and other parts connected with the tungsten wire rope to avoid serious vibration and impact. To avoid damaging the internal structure of tungsten wire rope and causing wire breakage.
5. When the tungsten wire rope rotates in use, its rotation direction shall follow the winding direction during weaving, otherwise the tungsten wire rope will loose or twist, resulting in wire breakage.
6. When loading the next furnace, carefully check whether the tungsten wire rope causes the problems mentioned above after use before starting the furnace. It can be used only when it is found that the tungsten wire rope is intact after inspection, otherwise it needs to be replaced to prevent danger.

Standard Packing: In coil, loaded in a wooden box or a carton box.