Why are tantalum grounding rings for magnetic inductive flowmeters expensive?

Project Overview

The on-site pipe material is plastic, and the magnetic inductive flowmeter must be installed with a grounding ring to display the signal. Ordinary media can be obtained using 316L for less than 200 yuan, but if the media is corrosive and needs to be equipped with a tantalum grounding ring, the price will increase several times.

The main reasons why tantalum grounding rings are expensive are as follows:

1. Scarcity and refining cost: Tantalum is a rare metal with a high content in the earth’s crust. Very little, which results in relatively high raw material costs. In addition, refining high-purity tantalum from ore requires complex processes, which also increases costs.

2. Excellent performance: Tantalum has extremely high chemical stability and corrosion resistance, and can maintain its performance in harsh chemical environments, such as resistance to strong acids (including hydrochloric acid HCl, nitric acid HNO3 and even aqua regia) )wait. This property makes tantalum an ideal material for manufacturing high-end ground rings, especially in applications that require long-term stability and reliability, such as magnetic inductive flow meters in the chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries.

3. High temperature and high pressure resistance: In addition to corrosion resistance, tantalum also has good electrical conductivity and high temperature and high pressure resistance, which allows it to work under extreme working conditions and increases its application value.

4. Processing difficulty: The processing and manufacturing process of high-purity tantalum is complex and requires extremely high process requirements, which further increases the production cost of its finished products. Especially making precise ground ring shapes requires fine processing technology and strict quality control.

5. Market demand and supply relationship: Due to the above characteristics, tantalum materials have stable demand in specific industries, but supply is limited, which may lead to high prices.

To sum up, the high price of tantalum grounding rings is mainly the result of its scarcity, excellent performance, processing difficulty and stable demand. In some applications that require extremely high measurement accuracy and reliability, tantalum ground rings are still a necessary choice despite their higher cost.