welding zirconium wire

LOL!

Zr is at least as reactive as titanium (which also burns as a powder). Low power TIG is probably your best hope, unless you want to go the "usual" route, say electron beam or laser welding, which I'm sure is typical for a material like this.

I'm more interested in the use...what's special about zirconium that you're using it for? Seems expensive...

Tim

-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:

I used to work at Western Zirconium where they make the stuff for nuc reactors. When it catches fire there aint nothing in this world that will put it out. Sometimes the chips would ignite and they just poured a big pile of salt over it and waited for it to burn out. The salt would melt into a hard coating over everything. Oxyacetylene is -NOT- the way to go. Whenever they welded any they used an electron beam welder and the zirconium was in a vacuume chamber. Oh yeah, the fumes are -VERY- corrosive. Every car in the parking lot rusted out in about two years. Good luck.

Cydrome Leader wrote in news:d3keql$3ur$ snipped-for-privacy@reader1.panix.com:

It will burn your house down. Zirconium is like Tiatanium and Magnesium, it burns very hot and very bright. I thought Zirconium was controlled by the NRC or somesuch. I've machined rod ends for nuclear fuel rods out of the stuff. I might be wrong about it being a controlled metal, but I know for sure that it burns. I wouldn't breathe the fumes of it burning either, IIRC they're not good for you either, they damage the lungs or are poisonous. Sorry I can't remember all the details it was quite some time ago. But again DO NOT put an O/A torch to the wire, at least not inside ;)

All the MSDS sheets I come across says the stuff burns when in powder. Nothing is mentioned of the wire form though. I don't plan on working with it inside. I'll test a piece and see what happens.

We used to employ it in "Zircs", small electrical-short simulators for stage pyro. The metal isn't exactly a "controlled substance", like illegal to own, or anything. But virtually 100% of the world supply is tied up by government buyers. They've essentially put a lockdown on the possibility of anyone owning any zirconium except the random scrap from a small machining job. Most short-circuit simulators and bullet hits now use titanium, although one can still find "zircs" on the market.

Zirc burns very hot and vigorously, and has a spark pattern we call "senko hanabi", where each spark branches and sparks again -- often several times.

You won't put it out easily once it ignites.

LLoyd

Zircon encrusted tweezers... (Montana, Dynamo Hum; Frank Zappa) :)

cheers T.Alan

Bait?

Ned Simmons

15+ years ago I worked for GE for a summer making the Zirc tubes for nuclear fuel bundles. Once in a while I'd work the deburring line where we used a hand deburring tool to take the burrs of the 25mm tubes. If you really cranked on the tool the shavings would come off on fire! Great fun! After finishing each bundle of tubes, we swept up the shavings and put them in a barrel filled with water.

Getting back to the original question, at GE the tubes came in 50cm in diameter and were reduced to 13mm. This was done with hydro-pneumatic tube reducers (HPTR). This was a cold process where the tube forced through a smaller diameter orifice to reduce the diameter and at the same time lengthen the tube. I don't know if you could do something similar.

Rob

Cydrome Leader wrote in news:d3l2r3$9h8$ snipped-for-privacy@reader1.panix.com:

I've lit turning chips on fire with a Bic lighter.

I took a MAPP torch to a piece of it. It mostly just got really hot and cooled down and became brittle and useless. One piece did seem to burn- it wasn't like a magnesium fire but it just stayed white hot and never broke apart or started to bead after I took it off the flame. The section that seemed to be burning had a white coating that wiped off.

So the main issue now is how to keep the wire from becoming brittle after being heated up.

I'm curious as to how it behaves. I got a 10 meter roll packaged by Alfa on on ebay.