What is the difference between cemented carbide and tungsten steel?

2020-06-03

Tungsten steel: 18% alloy steel containing tungsten in the finished product. Tungsten steel is classified as cemented carbide, also called tungsten titanium alloy. The hardness is 10K Vickers, second only to diamonds. Because of this, the products of tungsten steel (the most common ones are tungsten steel watches) have the characteristics of not being easily worn. Commonly used on lathe tools, impact drill bits, glass cutter bits, and ceramic tile cutters, they are strong and not afraid of annealing, but they are brittle.
Cemented Carbide: Cemented Carbide, also known as cermet in the field of powder metallurgy, is based on metal carbides (WC, TaC, TiC, NbC, etc.) or metal oxides (such as Al2O3, ZrO2, etc.) as the primary component, and participates in an appropriate amount of metal powder (Co, Cr, Mo, Ni, Fe, etc.) made of powder metallurgy, ceramics with certain metal characteristics. Cobalt (Co) is used to play a bonding effect in the alloy, that is, during the sintering process, it can surround and tightly bond tungsten carbide (WC) powder. After cooling, it becomes hard Alloy. (The effect is equivalent to cement in concrete). The content is usually: 3%-30% tungsten carbide (WC) is the primary component that determines certain metal properties of this cemented carbide or cermet, accounting for 70%-97% (component ratio) of the total composition, widely used in wear resistance , High temperature resistant, corrosion resistant, harsh working environment parts or cutters, tool heads.
Tungsten steel is classified as cemented carbide, but cemented carbide is definitely tungsten steel. Now customers in Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries like to use the term tungsten steel. If you talk to them in depth, you will find that most of them still refer to hard alloys. alloy.
The difference between tungsten steel and cemented carbide is that it is also known as high-speed steel or tool steel. Tungsten steel is made by using steel-making technology to participate in the smelting of tungsten iron as tungsten in molten steel. Also known as high-speed steel or tool steel, its tungsten content Usually 15-25%; while cemented carbide is made of powder metallurgy technology with tungsten carbide as the main body and sintered with cobalt or other bonding metals, its tungsten content is usually above 80%. In a nutshell, everything that has a hardness that exceeds HRC65 can be called cemented carbide as long as it is an alloy. Tungsten steel is just a kind of cemented carbide with a hardness between HRC85 and 92, and is often used to make knives.
Zhuzhou Weiye Cemented Carbide Industrial Co., Ltd. mainly produces and develops cemented carbide products. With nearly 20 years of expertise in the field, product quality is at a leading level in China.