Tantalum Industries
Medical, Pharmaceutical, and Chemical

Resistance to high temperatures and chemical corrosion make tantalum, and tantalum alloys materials of choice for chemical, medical, pharmaceutical and nuclear plant processing equipment. Tantalum operates safely at high temperatures and chemical concentrations while minimizing product contamination.

Tantalum has been evaluated in over 2000 reagents and is only corroded by less than 50 of them, namely hydrofluoric acid, solutions containing fluorides in excess of about 10ppm, fuming sulphuric acid, fuming nitric acid and caustic soda. Tantalum can resist the corrosion of sulphuric acid and nitric acid at the temperature up to 200ºC. Combining high strength with excellent thermal conductivity, so tantalum and its alloys are widely used for heat exchangers, surgical implants, condensers, evaporators, thermocouple pockets and bursting discs.

Most tantalum is used in the pure form, especially for lining steel reaction vessels, cladding thermocouple pockets and agitators. However, due to the high cost, solid material is seldom used for the larger component parts. Larger components such as vessel linings and agitators are clad with thin tantalum sheets. Because tantalum is easy to fabricate, parts can be designed with thin cross-sections and in intricate shapes, such as spinnerets and impellers.

Tantalum alloy with 2-12% Tungsten, though slightly more expensive, does have a 25% higher tensile strength. Thus thinner sections can be used especially in heat exchanger tubing. Alloying tantalum with tungsten improves corrosion resistance in sulphuric acid at the temperature as high as 200ºC given high pressure steam.

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