Strength, ductility, toughness, corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity and high melting point make tantalum metallurgical products important in chemical and pharmaceutical processing, aerospace, energy and ballistic applications.

Tantalum provides longer service life than other corrosion-resistant metals, such as titanium, zirconium, or stainless steel. The metal's mechanical properties, including ductility, toughness and fatigue resistance, make tantalum equipment more robust than glass or graphite systems. Also, thin-gauge tantalum strip can be readily deep-drawn to produce inert laboratory crucibles and cups.

Tantalum and its alloys possess a combination of properties that make them excellent materials for high temperature corrosion applications in inert atmospheres or vacuum. The metals have high melting points, good elevated temperature mechanical properties, excellent thermal properties and good fabricability.

Tantalum is commonly used as hardware in high temperature environments such as heat shielding in jet engines and vacuum furnaces. Tantalum alloys are used in applications that require exceptional strength at high temperatures such as fasteners and fixtures in furnaces and other high temperature equipment. Above 250°C, tantalum and its alloys are resistant to attack by atmospheric gases (air, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide). The ability of tantalum to react with large volumes of gases makes it ideal as a getter in vacuum furnaces and gas purification systems.

Other high temperature applications include susceptors, resistance heaters, trays, thermowells, thermocouple sheaths, structural parts, crucibles, heat shields, and containers for liquid metals and vapors.

Crucibles are used for high temperature reactions, fusion, thin-film deposition, distillation and the melting of special glasses.