14 DAY TRIAL // Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a hard, rare metal whose melting point is the highest among all known elements. Because of that, it and its alloys are used in incandescent light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes (as both the filament and target), electrodes, superalloys, even radiation shielding.
However, the high melting point (3422 °C / 6,191 °F) is as much a curse as it is a blessing, because it makes it hard to process the material.
Tungsten has been proving quite hard to utilize in additive manufacturing because of that. However, a Philips brand, specifically medical imaging component manufacturer Smit Röntgen, has come up with a way to achieve that important goal.
The process constructs items by selectively solidifying thin layers of pure tungsten according to a digital design via a technique called Powder Bed Laser Melting.
Thus, it is now possible to create complex bracing parts, or concave ones, out of pure tungsten. Sure, it will take a lot of money, but not as much as conventional processing and assembly techniques, not to mention that the time of production will be shortened considerably.
All in all, this is a great success on the part of Smit Röntgen. Good thing they didn't give up, considering that they've been trying to pull off tungsten additive fabrication since 10 years ago.
