Industrial Niobium Manufacture

Vanadium has found important application in the manufacture of special steels, and tantalum is being increasingly employed for electrolytic rectifiers. It seems probable that the industrial application of these elements will increase in the future, and that uses will also be found for niobium. 

Niobium-containing tantalum carbide manufactured with the menstruum process is industrially important... 

Radioisotopic age determination is used for industrial purposes if a material is susceptible to aging. A method called double isotopic labeling can be used. The product is labeled when manufactured with a pair of isotopes having different half-lives and radiation energies. Examples of suitable pairs are chlorine-36 and manganese-54, chlorine-36 and niobium-95, and technetium-99 and niobium-95. As time passes, the initial ratio of the isotopes is changed. 

An important question under discussion is the choice of super conducting materials. On the one hand, there is the ductile niobium-titanium compound. Industry has a good command of the technique of producing multifilament conductors made of this material, but in order to attain the foregoing field values, the material has to be operated at lower temperatures than that of liquid helium (T < 2 K). The alternative is the 15 conductor, essentially NbsSn at present. This brittle material is less amenable to processing and industry is not yet very well versed in manufacturing conductor material. 

This alloy is produced ir all forms although it is ger erally used in multifilament cables. The alloys are manufactured in both grade 1 and grade 2 types. Grade 2 material has a higher allowable tantalum content, which has no effect on the superconducting properties. A wet-grade niobium-55% titanium alloy is also available that finds application in the aircraft industry. 

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