Although both thorium-tungsten and cerium-tungsten electrodes are primarily made from metal tungsten and cerium-tungsten can often substitute for thorium-tungsten, differences in their dopants lead to variations in appearance, performance, production processes, and applications.<\/p>\n
1. Definition<\/p>\n
Thorium-tungsten refers to an electrode product with a chemical composition mainly consisting of tungsten and thorium oxide, designated as WT20, marked with a red color code. Its diameter ranges from 1.0 to 12.0 mm, with lengths of 150 mm or 175 mm.<\/p>\n
Cerium-tungsten is an electrode product made by adding cerium oxide to a tungsten base through powder metallurgy and rolling, grinding, and polishing processes. It is designated as WC20, marked with a gray color code, with a cerium oxide content of 1.8%-2.2%. Its diameter ranges from 0.5 to 12.0 mm, with lengths of 150 mm or 175 mm.<\/p>\n
2. Performance<\/p>\n
Both electrodes exhibit low electron work function, low burn-off rate, strong current-carrying capacity, easy arc initiation, stable arc beam, long service life, good electrical conductivity, mechanical cutting properties, and weldability. However, the following points should be noted:<\/p>\n
The cathode drop of thorium-tungsten is higher than that of cerium-tungsten.<\/p>\n
At low voltages, cerium-tungsten has a longer lifespan than thorium-tungsten.<\/p>\n
The minimum arc initiation voltage for cerium-tungsten is 12V, while for thorium-tungsten it is 30V.<\/p>\n
Under the same cutting conditions, when the nozzle leaks water, the wear of thorium-tungsten is greater than that of cerium-tungsten.<\/p>\n
Cerium-tungsten electrodes have lower work function and alpha radiation levels than thorium-tungsten electrodes and are non-radioactive.<\/p>\n
In terms of electrode emission current density, cerium-tungsten produces a narrow, bright arc column with higher brightness and emission current density compared to thorium-tungsten.<\/p>\n
3. Production Process<\/p>\n
Preparation of Thorium-Tungsten Electrodes: Tungsten powder and thorium oxide powder are mixed in specific proportions, pressed, and sintered to produce thorium-tungsten rods. These rods are then subjected to rotary forging, wire drawing, straightening, cutting, and polishing to obtain the final thorium-tungsten electrodes.<\/p>\n
Preparation of Cerium-Tungsten Electrodes: Cerium salt solution is added to tungsten oxide, dried, and calcined, followed by secondary reduction. The resulting tungsten-cerium powder is pressed into green rods, pre-sintered in a hydrogen molybdenum wire furnace, and then subjected to high-temperature electric sintering to form tungsten-cerium rods. These rods are subsequently hot rotary forged and drawn into the desired products.<\/p>\n
4. Applications<\/p>\n
Thorium-tungsten electrodes are typically used in direct current welding applications, requiring operation under high current conditions, with weldable materials including carbon steel, stainless steel, and copper-aluminum.<\/p>\n
Cerium-tungsten electrodes are suitable for both direct current and alternating current welding applications, primarily used for welding materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel, silicon copper, copper, bronze, and titanium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although both thorium-tungsten and cerium-tungsten elec […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7489,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions\/7489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hcnch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}