Precious metals like gold, platinum, and silver are excellent choices for specialty wires.
They offer advantageous electrical properties with little or no reaction to chemicals. This wiring can be used in a wide variety of applications and environments without fluctuation concerns.
Platinum makes an especially valuable wiring material because of its consistent performance in high temperatures, complex configurations, and challenging environments. It resists corrosion and oxidation and withstands the majority of acids. With excellent malleability and ductility, platinum is ideal for complex or precise wire fabrications.
Medical Applications of Platinum Wire
Manufacturers incorporate platinum wires into a wide variety of medical devices and equipment. Patients with medical implants, such as pacemakers, dental restorations, and cochlear implants, benefit from the stability of platinum in chemically active environments. For example, catheters have platinum guide wires and markers that can be seen on X-rays or fluoroscopies to ensure the devices are properly inserted.
Platinum wire is also used in the manufacture of lab utensils, surgical tools, and transfer tools that move samples of organic material onto sterile plates. Platinum-based sterile swabs can safely move clinical samples of tissue without presenting any risk of contamination or chemical reactions.
Aerospace and Military Applications of Platinum Wire
Aerospace and military manufacturers use platinum wiring for monitoring equipment, thermocouples, and other instruments. Thermocouples are temperature sensors that assess the reaction between platinum and a dissimilar metal like rhodium to determine temperature variations. While some thermocouples use other metals, Type B, Type R, and Type S thermocouples use platinum. These tools are preferred for measuring temperatures in environments with high base temperatures.
Along with thermocouples, some common uses of platinum wire in aerospace and military applications include:
- Aircraft engines
- Catalytic converters in gas-powered vehicles
- Heat exchangers
- Individual engine parts, such as blades, fuel manifolds, fuel nozzles, stators, and vanes
- Infrared detectors
- Turbines
Electrical Applications of Platinum Wire
Thermocouples are popular tools in industrial and commercial applications, as well. Platinum wires are also a highly valuable component in semiconductor manufacturing, as platinum wire can be fabricated in ultra-fine varieties for increasingly small semiconductors with complex design structures.
Manufacturers use platinum wiring to grow crystal in ceramic capacitors and crucibles. Developing energy technologies and power storage solutions rely on platinum wiring for PEM fuel cells, catalysts, and more.
Some of the most common electrical components that make use of platinum wiring include:
- Contact points
- Fiber optics
- LCD displays
- Resistance wires
Laptops are a prime example of products that use platinum in multiple different contexts.
Leaders in Platinum Wire
California Fine Wire is a leading provider of high-quality platinum wire for clients across multiple industries. We fabricate 99.99% pure titanium wire that is suitable for sensitive and highly specialized applications. If your project needs platinum alloy wires, we can produce platinum alloys using rhodium, iridium, and tungsten according to your specifications and preferred percentages.
Since our company began in 1961, California Fine Wire has specialized in both round and flat wiring in fine and ultra-fine varieties. We also manufacture stranded wire and coated wire from a wide variety of semi-precious and standard metal materials. Each product is manufactured to meet the precise needs of our customers. Our company is ISO 9001:2015-certified, and we maintain an extensive in-house quality testing process to ensure wiring meets ANSI, NBS, and stringent internal standards at each stage of production. These tests include dimensional measurements, tensile testing, and resistance measurements.
Contact us today or request a quote to see how our wire manufacturing capabilities can support your project.