Polymer - Tungsten & Tungsten Base Heavy Alloy for High Energy Radiation Shielding

Poly –Tungsten is a definition for Tungsten – Polymer composites which are substitutes for Lead or sintered Tungsten base heavy alloys. The composite systems are a combination of two components: A polymer which is acting as filler and combines high weight percent of tungsten powder. It is possible to introduce, for example, 97wt% of tungsten powder to nylon filler or other polymers. Those compound will result density of 13 g/cm3. Tungsten base heavy metal alloy will vary between 16 to 18.5 g/cm3 and pure tungsten 19.3 g/cm3. Commercial Lead density is between 10.0-10.8 g/cm3. Lead is regulated nowadays as a hazardous material.

High density Tungsten-Nylon may vary between 10 to 14 g/cm3. The Tungsten- Polymer will not require sintering as heavy metals, since it is being injection molded as a regular polymer.

The new age for those high density composites provides us with technological opportunities in the design and production for medical machinery balancing and radiation shielding.

Application in the shielding industry:

Radiography
Nuclear power plant shielding
Nuclear medicine
Clinical point shielding
X-ray collimators and area shielding blocks
Isotope production, transport, and containment
Oncology Isotopic and accelerator based platforms
Homeland Defense- Personal protection equipment & Oil Well Logging Tools