Here at Special Metals UK, we are able to produce molybdenum plates to your specifications, for use in a variety of industrial and engineering applications.
Molybdenum is a silver-coloured metal which occurs with relative rarity in the Earth’s crust, usually concentrated in a number of ores which must be mined and purified. These water-insoluble ores usually also contain sulphur and copper, and while the extraction process is complex and difficult, it is worthwhile – the molybdenum extracted is an extremely valuable material for industrial use and engineering.
Key among the advantages of molybdenum is its extremely high melting point – the sixth highest of all known metals – and the fact that molybdenum plates hold their strength up to very high temperatures, instead of softening and becoming malleable. Molybdenum plates are also very resistant to heat expansion and weakening, holding their integrity through extreme amounts of thermal energy.
Originally alloyed with steel plating used for armour in WW1, molybdenum replaced the much heavier and less effective tungsten, and thanks to its lower density and increased thermal resistance, molybdenum plates in armour found considerable success.
Today, molybdenum plates are used in an incredible variety of applications across dozens of industries. Molybdenum plates and molybdenum TZM plates are commonly used as crucial components in furnaces, furnace tools, smelting equipment, aerospace engineering, spacecraft and satellites, glassmaking tools, nuclear engineering and the petrochemical industry, among many others.
The molybdenum TZM plates made by Special Metals UK blend the advantages of molybdenum with titanium and zirconium, providing an even higher material strength, resistance to physical stresses and resistance to heat creep deformation than that shown by pure molybdenum plates.
