What are Technology metal?

What are Technology metal?

Here can we say that the technology metals are those generally-rare metals that are essential for the production of 'high tech' devices and engineered systems, such as:

• The mass production of miniaturized electronics and associated devices;
• Advanced weapons systems and platforms for national defense;
• The generation of electricity using 'alternative' sources such as solar panels and wind turbines;
• The storage of electricity using cells and batteries.

There are of course numerous other uses and applications of these metals.


In the table below we list those metals that we define as ‘rare’, by defining rare as ‘produced annually in a quantity of 25,000 metric tonnes or less.’ Only the most obscure of these rare metals, such as the rare earths holmium, ytterbium, and lutetium, can still be defined as minor metals, because even today they only have minor uses since they are and will remain too rare ever to be available in sufficient quantity for mass production of a technology.

The technology metals are almost all rare metals, and they are almost all produced as byproducts of base or common metals.
The problem with the technology metals is that our supply of them, or more specifically our maximum rates of production of them, is critically dependent mostly upon our production of base metals. In the case of the rare earth metals, mined as a group, the key supply issue is the complex metallurgy of the separation of the individual rare earths from each other; for the case of lithium, a key issue is the length of time that primary concentration takes. The rare earths as a group are actually not rare, based on the admittedly arbitrary definition above, though individual rare earths certainly are.
The rare earths and lithium are today the subject of much discussion, because they have become the most visible technology metals.  The definition of a rare metal is somewhat fluid; a few of today’s rare metals may not always be so. Lithium, for example, is on the cusp of being struck from the list of rare metals, because of its use in electrical storage. But it has turned out that once a minor metal becomes a technology metal, it will never again be a minor metal.
 
Shenzhen Summit Levitation Metallurgical S&T Co., Ltd is focus on research and develop levitation induction melting. Our Levitation Induction Melting Equipment is ideal for those technology metals refining,alloying,casting.

Hannah Zhang | Export Manager

Tel: +86 755 29128802 | Fax: +86 27572167
Email: sales@summitsz.com 

W:  http://www.summitsz.com
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Shenzhen Summit Levitation Metallurgical S&T Co., Ltd
6F,East Area 3#, Liutang Rd, Xixiang, 75Zone, Baoan, Shenzhen,China