Zirconium tube is a non - ferrous alloy which is composed of zirconium and other elements. The main alloying elements are tin, niobium, iron and so on. In the 300 to 400 degrees high temperature high pressure water and steam, zirconium alloy has good corrosion resistance, moderate mechanical properties, low atomic thermal neutron absorption cross section and good compatibility to nuclear fuel, which is usually used as the core structure materials of water-cooled nuclear reactor. In addition, zirconium has excellent corrosion resistance to several kinds of acid, alkali and salt and it has a strong affinity with oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, so zirconium alloy is also used to corrosion resistant parts and pharmaceutical machinery parts, in the power vacuum and lighting industry, it is widely used as a non evaporable getter.

The industrial scale production zirconium alloy has two kinds: zirconium tin and zirconium niobium. The former alloy brand has Zr-2, Zr-4, the typical representative of the latter is Zr-2.5Nb. In the zirconium tin based alloy, the alloying element tin, iron, chromium, nickel can improve the strength, corrosion resistance and thermal conductivity of the film, and reduce the sensitivity of the surface state to corrosion. Zr-2 alloys are usually used in boiling water reactors, and Zr-4 alloys are used in pressurized water reactors. In the zirconium niobium alloy, the corrosion resistance of the alloy was the best when the content of Nb was added to the solid solution limit of the crystal structure of zirconium in the using temperature. The plasticity of zirconium alloy is good, which can be made into the pipe, sheet, rod and wire material through the plastic processing, its welding is good, which also can be used for welding processing.