Thomas Wire Die Introduces a High Wear Application That Was Using Ceramic and Changed to Carbide |
Thomas Wire Die
2316 Delaware Ave.
Buffalo, NY, 14216
USA
Press release date: July 2, 2012
For many years tungsten carbide has been a popular choice in high wear applications. Thomas Wire Die has been active in introducing carbide as an alternative to tool steel in situations sometimes considered too severe for so called "brittle" tungsten carbide. This issue's success story is a little different - a high wear application that was using ceramic and was changed to carbide.
There are a large number of tungsten carbide grades available and these grades cover a wide variety of applications. High cobalt grades used in heavy shock and impact conditions, such as heavy blanking, swaging and cold heading, have a hardness of 60-65 Rc. Low cobalt grades used in high wear no-shock applications such as nozzles and wear guides have a hardness of 80 Rc and higher. With the wide range of grades available, it is important to match the grade with the application to realize the maximum benefit of tungsten carbide.
The use of ceramics in wear applications is increasing because of their high level of hardness, light weight and resistance to chemical attack. Typical applications for ceramic include wear plates and thermal barriers, bearings for high speed spindles, valve seats, oil field flow control components, and die and cutting tool inserts.
In a recent project, we worked with a customer in testing several grades of tungsten carbide against ceramic in a wear application. The existing design called for ceramic in a nozzle component and our customer wanted to evaluate the suitability of various carbide grades in reducing the operating cost of the assembly.
The results of the testing in this application showed that a specific tungsten carbide provided better overall performance than the ceramic they had previously been using. The investment in carbide dies and wear parts varies by need. Thomas Wire Die will work closely with you to determine the most appropriate grade for your application to balance wear resistance and toughness.
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