Ural metal will go into space

This year the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant (an enterprise of the metallurgical complex of UMMC) supplied a record amount of metal (about 250 kilograms) for the aviation industry. We are talking about an alloy of indium and tin - POIN-52 solder. It consists of 52 percent indium and 48 percent tin. POin-52 has an extremely low melting point, and also has the ability to completely fill and seal the smallest pores and voids of products. These properties allow the solder to qualitatively join thin products that are afraid of high temperatures - highly sensitive microcircuits used in the space and aviation industries. “Our clients use POIN-52 solder for the production of onboard equipment and radio installation devices,” says CZP commercial director Alexander Kharchenko. “Indium has high adhesion to many materials, even metal to glass can be soldered.” Indium is a by-product of zinc production. Its main field of application is in the semiconductor industry. High purity indium is required for the manufacture of germanium rectifiers and amplifiers. Some indium compounds are themselves semiconductors; they are used for the manufacture of thermoelements and other devices. The first kilograms of high-purity indium with a basic element content of at least 99.9999% were obtained at CZP in 2017. The development and industrial implementation of a practically significant technology for the production of high-purity indium metal allowed the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant to become one of the five finalists of the Industry-2019 National Industrial Award.