Molybdenum, discovered hundreds of years ago but confused with graphite and lead ore, was first categorised as a separate element in 1754 by Swedish chemist Bengt Andersson Qvist. Due to its original confusion with lead, it even borrowed its name from the other metal, being named molybdenum after molybdos, the ancient Greek word for lead.
However, molybdenum and lead couldn’t be more different. Molybdenum rods exhibit an extraordinary resistance to temperature, with the sixth-highest melting point of any known metal in the universe, and molybdenum as a material is extremely resistant to softening or losing integrity at higher temperatures, remaining strong and sturdy even at heat levels that would melt other metals.
Molybdenum TZM rods take these advantages and add additional strengths to them, with a titanium-zirconium-molybdenum blend providing increased mechanical strength and physical resistance to the material, while also increasing the resistance to creeping heat deformation and softening at temperature. By combining the high heat resistance and thermal stability of molybdenum rods with improved strength and durability, molybdenum TZM rods provide even greater versatility and utility than that seen in pure molybdenum rods.
In industry and engineering, molybdenum rods are commonly used as blanks in production of more specialist components and equipment, like furnace components and molten-metal handling tools, crucibles and piping, or in high-pressure, high-heat applications like aerospace engineering and satellites. Molybdenum rods can also be drawn into wire or rolled into sheeting, and can then be used in the production of sintering trays, radiation shielding, high-performance heating elements and other high-energy components.
