Tantalum plate manufacturers have introduced that tantalum as an alloying element is rarely used in steel. Tantalum has a high affinity for interstitial atoms such as C and N in steel, and the compounds formed with them are very stable even at high temperatures.

The strengthening effect of tantalum on Fe-C-Ta alloy and its related mechanism have been preliminarily studied by scholars from the Institute of Metals, Chinese Academy of Sciences through mechanical property testing and observation of OM, SEM and TEM. The results show that when the tantalum content increases from 0.027% to 0.059%, the strength of the alloy increases significantly, and the impact energy of the high tantalum content alloy decreases by 87J, but it still has good toughness. The analysis shows that the strengthening effect of tantalum in iron based alloys is manifested in solid solution strengthening and precipitation strengthening. After aging at 600 ℃ for 1 hour, the strength and plasticity of high tantalum content alloys reach the maximum value at the same time, obtaining the best precipitation strengthening effect of tantalum containing carbides.