What is cemented carbide?

Cemented carbide is an alloy composed of hard metal carbides and iron-based metals.
The most typical composition of cemented carbide is WC-Co alloy.
Cemented carbide will have high elastic modulus and hardness following diamond when WC and Co powder is sintered at 1,400 degrees celsius. In addition, cemented carbide has the characteristics of high hardness, elastic modulus, compression strength, thermal conductivity, specific gravity, and low thermal expansion coefficient.
Due to these properties, cemented carbide is used in machining tools and press dies that require wear resistance.
If you would like to know more about cemented carbide, read more about the features and types of cemented carbide.

＞＞What is cemented carbide?

Advantages of cemented carbide

The life of the press die can be extended

Cemented carbide is used in machining tools as described above.
As with cemented carbide, high-speed tool steel is one of the materials used for machining tools.
Cemented carbide has higher hardness, elastic modulus, and compression strength than high-speed steel.
So, when cemented carbide is used as a die, it has the advantage of being able to process with high dimensional accuracy and extending the life of the press.
The high thermal conductivity of cemented carbide allows for a longer service life by reducing life loss due to seizure with other metals.

Disadvantages of cemented carbide

EDM is required

Since cemented carbide has a high hardness, it is necessary to use diamond as grindstone or EDM during processing.
Exclusive equipment is required for EDM, however it enables high-precision machining, which also leads to the manufacture of dies of highly precise dimensions.

Prone to chipping and breakage

Cemented carbide has lower impact strength and fracture toughness than high speed tool steel, therefore has the disadvantage of being prone to chipping and breakage due to impact during pressing and processing.
Also, the specific gravity is twice as much as high speed tool steel, so handling may require usage of machines.
However, these may be overcome by changing the cemented carbide grade, as various characteristics can be achieved by making the right material selection and combination.
We would like to introduce a few examples of solved problems using our cemented carbide.

Please contact us for material selection and processing of cemented carbide

Everloy shows processes for various carbide parts.
Based on the know-how of cemented carbide materials and cemented carbide processing, we have solved various problems of cemented carbide. Through thorough cause analysis, it is possible to select the appropriate cemented carbide materials and make the appropriate processing. If you experience any trouble with using cemented carbide, please feel free to contact us.