Why Use Pure Tungsten Carbide over Other Materials
Tungsten Carbide (WC) is an inorganic chemical compound containing equal parts of pure tungsten and carbon atoms. Tungsten carbide in its most basic form is a fine grey powder, but can be processed and formed into shapes for use in industrial machinery, tools, abrasives, as well as in jewelry products.
Tungsten carbide is approximately three times more rigidity than steel, with a Young modulus of approximately 550GPa, and is much denser than steel or titanium. It is comparable with corundum in hardness and can only be polished and finished with abrasives of superior hardness such as silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride and diamond amongst others, in the form of powder, wheels and compounds.
Pure Tungsten Carbide is an incredibly versatile material that comes in numerous different types to give varying properties. These varying characteristics are the main reason for its popularity in a range of applications and industries. Tungsten carbide falls between 8.5 and 9.0 on Moh hardness scale, making it almost as hard as diamond.
How is the Pure Tungsten Carbide Formed?
In typical conditions, when uncombined, Tungsten is a steel-grey colored metal. Tungsten is only found naturally on earth when combined in chemical compounds. It was first discovered in 1781 and the free element got its reputation for its tough physical properties, particularly the fact that it has the highest melting point of non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements a behind carbon.
Tungsten carbide is formed by reacting carbon and tungsten at temperatures of between 1400 and 20000C. These high temperatures make it ideal to be for mills and cutting tools for industrial use which are able to required heavy use and high temperatures. Tungsten carbide starts off as a fine grey powder, in this form its hard wearing properties makes for an excellent abrasive or this powder can be pressed and formed into a desired shape, for example tools, jewelry and machinery. The rare and extraordinary physical properties retained by Tungsten carbide makes it useful for a variety of applications.
It is enormously strong and wear-resistant, so much so that there are only a scarce number of materials on earth that can cut or scratch tungsten carbide with industrial diamond abrasives being one. It is important to understand that tungsten carbide is available in different grades with varying properties depending on use. There are many different grades of tungsten carbide nowadays available in the market for sale which varies on just a few parameters: grain size, hardness and the degree to which a binder is used.
How Much Strength Does Tungsten Carbide Offer?
Minimum Transverse Rupture Strength (TRS)
The transverse rupture strength of tungsten carbide with cobalt variations is sometimes regarded as an indication of toughness which increases as hardness decreases. A recent study was conducted using a controlled group of tungsten carbide with cobalt samples with consistent TRS values. It demonstrated a different relationship between the TRS and hardness of Tungsten Carbide with Cobalt compounds.
TRS is a measure of the strength of tungsten carbide. Tensile strength is not used on tungsten carbide because it is too brittle and accurate readings cannot be obtained. As a rule of thumb the tensile strength of tungsten carbide is approx. half of the transverse rupture strength. Transverse rupture strength values are determined by the amount of force needed to break standard test pieces under the same test conditions.
Compressive Strength:
Compressive strength is measured by compressing a right cylinder test piece between two tungsten carbide blocks held in line by an outer sleeve assembly. The compressive strength of tungsten carbide is higher than for virtually all metals and alloys. This high compressive strength makes it possible to compress carbon at 1million P.S.I from man-made diamonds.
Impact Strength:
This measures the resistance of tungsten carbide to shock loading by a drop weight impact test. This is a more reliable indication of toughness than TRS readings.
Weison Advanced Materials Co Ltd founded in 1990s and located at one of the Chinese biggest clustering base of tungsten resources 鈥?Hunan, is a high-tech enterprise that focuses its diligence on research, development, manufacture, sales and technical service base on tungsten material.
WEISON turning power into precision finishing around tungsten-oriented materials with about twenty years?expertise and existing experience in powder metallurgy, variety of tungsten-oriented products have been constantly produced and brought into innovative competitive market.
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