Tungsten Carbide And Its Many Uses

Tungsten carbide, often called “carbide,” is a familiar material around the shop. This compound of tungsten and carbon has revolutionized the metal-cutting world over the decades, enabling increased speeds and feeds and providing longer tool life. Tungsten carbide was first investigated as a cutting tool material in 1925 by Dr. Samuel Hoyt, a scientist at General Electric’s Lamp Department. Later GE opened the Carboloy division to produce tungsten carbide cutting tools. In the late 1930s, Philip M. McKenna, founder of Kennametal, discovered that adding a titanium compound to the mix made the tools work better at higher speeds. This began the march toward today’s lightning-fast cutting speeds.Tungsten carbide is an important member of the class of inorganic compounds of carbon, used alone or with 6 to 20 percent of other metals to impart hardness to cast iron, cutting edges of saws, and drills penetrating cores of armor-piercing projectiles.“Cemented tungsten carbide,” the material that makes up the tools and inserts, is actually grains of tungsten carbide, along with particles of other materials, cemented together using the metal cobalt as a binder.

The Strength Of Tungsten Carbide

Tungsten carbide is a tough material. It has been projected as falling somewhere between 8.5 and 9 on the Moh’s hardness scale, just behind diamonds. This makes it a valuable metal with many different applications. A tungsten carbide drill can be incredibly tough against jobs that would cause other metal drill bits to become dull and break.To compare, steel has three times less rigidity than tungsten. This rigidity makes tungsten stronger than both steel and titanium. Tungsten is extremely durable and can stand up to a lot of punishment in whatever job it is used. Whether it be tungsten powder or tungsten carbide inserts, this compound can get the job done.

Applications Of Tungsten Carbide And Hard Metals

Tungsten Carbides have a wide range of application in many industry sectors such as metal machining, wear parts for mining and oil industries, metal forming tools, cutting tips for saw blades and have now expanded to include consumer items such as wedding rings and watch cases, plus the ball that is in many ballpoint pens.

How Is It Manufactured?

Regardless of whether with nickel, titanium, or carbon, both the tungsten and in this way, the picked component is ground into a powder structure and packed at high temperatures around 6,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius) to make a band clear. This procedure is generally called sintering.In the wake of sintering, the clear ring appears to be a dark, harsh bit of metal. It requires a 30-advance cleaning procedure to draw out that reflexive sparkle. Because of the intense hardness of tungsten carbide, jewel cleaning glue is required to hinder through those harsh external layers.