Introduction to hard alloy

Cemented carbide is an alloy material made from hard compounds of refractory metals and binder metals through powder metallurgy processes.

Cemented carbide exhibits a series of excellent properties, including high hardness, wear resistance, good strength and toughness, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance. In particular, its high hardness and wear resistance remain essentially unchanged even at temperatures of 500°C, and it still maintains high hardness at 1000°C.

Cemented carbide is widely used as a tool material, such as for turning tools, milling cutters, planing tools, drills, boring tools, etc., for cutting cast iron, non-ferrous metals, plastics, chemical fibers, graphite, glass, stone, and ordinary steel. It can also be used to cut difficult-to-machine materials such as heat-resistant steel, stainless steel, high-manganese steel, and tool steel.

Advantages

Cemented carbide has high hardness, strength, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, and is known as the "teeth of industry". It is used to manufacture cutting tools, drills, and wear-resistant components, and is widely applied in military, aerospace, mechanical processing, metallurgy, oil drilling, mining tools, electronic communications, construction, and other fields. With the development of downstream industries, the demand for cemented carbide products continues to increase. Furthermore, the future development of high-tech weaponry and equipment manufacturing, advancements in cutting-edge science and technology, and the rapid development of nuclear energy will significantly increase the demand for high-tech and high-quality stability cemented carbide products.

Applications

In 1923, Schröter in Germany invented a new alloy of tungsten carbide and cobalt by adding 10%-20% cobalt as a binder to tungsten carbide powder. Its hardness was second only to diamond, making it the first artificially produced cemented carbide in the world. However, when tools made from this alloy were used to cut steel, the cutting edges would wear out quickly or even chip. In 1929, Schwarzkopf in the United States improved the performance of the alloy for cutting steel by adding a certain amount of complex carbides of tungsten carbide and titanium carbide to the original composition. This was another achievement in the development of cemented carbide.

Cemented carbide can also be used to make rock drilling tools, mining tools, drilling tools, measuring instruments, wear-resistant parts, metal abrasives, cylinder liners, precision bearings, nozzles, and hardware molds (such as wire drawing molds, bolt molds, nut molds, and various fastener molds. The excellent properties of cemented carbide have gradually replaced the previous steel molds).

In the past two decades, coated cemented carbide has also emerged. In 1969, Sweden developed a titanium carbide-coated cutting tool. The base of the tool is tungsten-titanium-cobalt cemented carbide or tungsten-cobalt cemented carbide, with a titanium carbide coating on the surface that is only a few micrometers thick. However, compared with alloy tools of the same grade, its service life is extended by three times, and the cutting speed is increased by 25%-50%. By the 1970s, the fourth generation of coated tools had appeared, which could be used to cut very difficult-to-machine materials.

How is cemented carbide sintered?

Cemented carbide is a metallic material made from one or more carbides of refractory metals and binder metals using powder metallurgy methods. SGS cemented carbide milling cutter.