Tungsten carbide technologies

The basic tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) material has been modified over the years to produce a variety of cemented carbides for applications such as metal cutting, mining, rock drilling, dies, wear parts, and structural components. Tungsten carbide was developed in the 1920s for wear-resistant dies to draw tungsten incandescent-lamp filament wire. Early efforts to manufacture parts of the WC-W{sub 2}C eutectic alloy were unsuccessful because of its inherent brittleness, and researchers turned to powder metallurgy techniques. Today, P/M methods are being further refined and new techniques developed to reduce manufacturing costs and improve performance. Technologies include synthesis of nanocrystalline WC composites, manufacturing binderless WC parts, and hot extruding composites directly from powder. This article discusses conventional and advanced manufacturing methods and resulting properties.