The production of cemented carbide (tungsten carbide) powder is a relatively difficult process. I believe everyone knows that many refractory metal materials can basically only be processed by powder metallurgy process, of course, cemented carbide is also included.
So why cemented carbide can only be processed by powder metallurgy?
Yatech materials has compiled knowledge about why cemented carbide is processed by powder metallurgy.
Because the raw material of cemented carbide contains refractory metal tungsten carbide, it is difficult to process by ordinary manufacturing methods, so cemented carbide can only be manufactured by powder metallurgy forming process.
Cemented carbide is made of some hard tungsten carbides, Co, Ni and other bonding metals and titanium carbide, tantalum carbide, chromium carbide and other carbide powders are mixed, pressed by molds or cold isostatic pressing, and then processed at 1450 ° C. Composite materials made by high temperature sintering process.
The raw material carbides of cemented carbide need to be sintered at a high temperature of 2000 ° C to form the desired size and shape, and the hardness is very high. Usually, in order to reduce the sintering temperature and improve the toughness of the cemented carbide, we use the binder “cobalt” or “nickel” as the bonding phase, so that the carbides are perfectly combined.
For powder metallurgy processing, the raw materials of cemented carbide, such as tungsten carbide, cobalt/nickel, and other compound carbides, can be made into powders. The powders are uniformly mixed by wet grinding, spray-dried to produce spherical particles, and then pressed and formed by powder metallurgy technology. , and then sintered in a HIP sintering furnace, cobalt/Ni as the binder phase will melt at 1450 ° C, and the carbide cannot be completely melted. Carbide products.
We can see that cemented carbide raw materials have these characteristics, and the production of cemented carbide products is generally processed by powder metallurgy. Powder metallurgy can well solve the problems that cannot be solved by traditional processes. It can not only form cemented carbide into final products through powder preparation, forming and sintering, but also ensure the performance of cemented carbide parts, which plays a very important role in the industrial field. .
The state-of-the-art 3D manufacturing cemented carbide process is used by industry-leading companies, such as Sandvik, which can be easily done with the help of 3D printing. The drawing die blank with a closed-loop spiral cooling channel design in the middle, if directly through the conventional process To process, it is almost impossible to achieve.
It is believed that there will be more cemented carbide manufacturing processes in the near future, and cemented carbide will continue to be brilliant in the industrial field.
Provide infinite possibilities for human industrial manufacturing.
#tungsten
#cemented
#stamping
