Tungsten – The Best Shielding Material

Tungsten – The Best Shielding Material

Tungsten is a highly-versatile alloy that uses tungsten as a shield against gamma and x-ray radiation. The tungsten collimator usually focuses on radiation beams that hit directly on the target. For many years, tungsten has been the preferred choice for engineers requiring tungsten radiation.

Its high density and superior attenuation characteristics give designers a significant advantage. It allows them to reduce the overall thickness of shields and collimators while still providing the same protection which is ideal for applications where space is restricted. The tungsten shielding can be easily manufactured with a reduction in thickness compared to lead. The radiation protection is never compromised.

The tungsten shielding can also be machined with conventional CNC machines, with a wide range of designs according to customer’s requirements. This alloy is physically strong, dimensionally stable, robust, and exceedingly long-lasting. Additionally, it’s easy to clean and non-toxic so there is no requirement for licensing the special handling precautions.

There is a plethora of benefits of using this type of shielding because of highly complex component designs, reduced scatter, accurate images, geometries with no milling, and turning. They are available in a variety of forms like multi-pinhole.

Why choose tungsten?

Performance – An exceedingly high gamma attenuation with technical characteristics.

Resistance – High-temperature resistance.

Modularity – machinable

Compactness – Incredibly small footprint

Applications

Tungsten is the best choice for various medical and industrial settings. This heavy alloy presents excellent value and higher levels of absorption compared to other alloys.

– Ship ballasts

– Firearms

– Helicopter rotor systems

– Golf club weights

– Engine components

– Bucking bars

– Boring bars

– High energy radiation shielding, like nuclear, medical, and industrial.

– Downhole logging sinker bars

– Auto racing industry

– Aircraft control surfaces

Below a shadow of any doubt, tungsten is the most suitable alloy used for shielding purposes with minimum radiation exposure, machinability, radiographic density, low toxicity, heat resistance, and superior design adaptability. This type of shielding isn’t subject to regulations for special constraints.

It’s most commonly used as:

  • Isotope vials and containers
  • Custom shielding components
  • Multi-leaf collimators
  • Collimators for radiosurgery
  • Collimators for x-ray detectors
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