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| A shiny, silvery, very dense precious metal which belongs to the platinum group. It is the most corrosion resistant of the elements.
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Arc-melted lumps.
Iridium melts at 2,410 degrees C which is well above the maximum temperature that can be attained with most furnaces. To produce these pieces of solid metal we melted then in an argon arc furnace which is a specialized apparatus for melting highly refractory materials.
Source: specially produced
Size: 0.5 inch
Purity: 99.9%
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Pen tip balls.
Iridium is costly and not easy to work, so it has relatively few industrial applications. One of them is as an alloying agent in the balls of ball-point pens. Iridium imparts a high degree of hardness which minimizes wear and gives the pens a long working life.
Source: eBay
Size: 0.05"
Purity: not determined
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NGK Spark plug.
Spark plugs are required to operate under the most difficult of circumstanced, inside the cylinders of internal combustion engines where temperatures and pressures are extreme. Since they are supposed to be the source of the spark that ignites the fuel, they must not only resist the corrosive action of the hot gasses and electric arc, they must also remain clean: This requires them to operate at high temperatures to avoid condensation of combustion products. All in all, it's no surprise that highly corrosion resistant, high-melting point metals would find uses in spark plugs, and iridium is a fine example of such a metal. Whether it offers any real advantage, other than in marketing, over platinum is probably debatable.
Source: Auto store
Size: 4"
Purity: <1%
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