Page 8 - Ceratizit Catalog

Introduction
6
Carbide – a composite material

The carbide formula for success

The CERATIZIT GROUP has the metallurgical competence Composite materials with valuable properties
that allows it to control the entire process chain of carbide pro-
duction: from raw materials production and powder prepara-
Cemented carbides are composite materials consisting of a
tion to forming, sintering and finishing, we can make the right
hard component and a comparatively soft binder metal, such
adjustments at any time and adapt the material properties to
as cobalt. The performance characteristics of carbide are
your individual requirements.
determined by hardness, transverse rupture strength and
fracture toughness. With regard to their application, important
parameters for the optimisation of the characteristics here are
the cobalt content and the grain size of the metal binder phase.
The tungsten carbide grains have an average size of 0.5 up to
several micrometres (μm). The cobalt fills the gaps between
the carbide grains. On the one hand, when extremely high
toughness is required, the cobalt content can amount up to
30%. On the other, the cobalt content is reduced and the grain
size decreased to the submicron range (for example 0.3 μm),
in order to guarantee maximum wear resistance.

CERATIZIT produces far more than 100 different carbide
grades particularly for wear parts and cutting tools, thus offer-
ing a customised solution for every one of your applications.

Introduction / Carbide - a composite material