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SCOPE
It was discovered that the addition of 1% zirconium
to niobium greatly improved the creep strength over
the soft pure metal. Thus Nb-1Zr became the replacement
for pure niobium in applications requiring the chemical
resistance of niobium and a material with high melting
temperature. In addition to greatly increasing the strength
of pure niobium at higher temperatures, Nb-1Zr also
has low thermal nuclear capture cross-section properties.
Therefore, this alloy has been closely associated with
the nuclear industry, which requires specified elevated
temperature strength in the range of 1800° F to
2200° F. Because of the increasing need for better
strengths, as technology has advanced, Nb-1Zr has been
replaced by alloys such as C-103, which has greater
strength and thus improved reliability, but still retains
all the desirable characteristics of Nb-1Zr. Nb-1Zr
has the advantage of being less expensive than the higher
strength alloys, and can be used in applications where
a high-temperature material is needed with low loads
such as a load-free thermal shield. Due to the excellent
fabricability and ductility, this material is readily
available in all desired mill product forms.
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