What is Cemented Carbide?

 

Cemented carbide is an extremely hard material used in industrial applications, typically to

Cemented Carbide Dies

form metals like steel, aluminum and brass. Since carbide is so hard, it’s a very good material to fashion cutting tools as well, again, usually to cut metals, and is around three times harder and twice as dense as steel. Cemented carbide, also called tungsten carbide, is a chemical compound consisting of fine particles of carbide cemented by a binder metal, typically cobalt although titanium, tantalum and nickel can also be added to get different properties.

Cemented carbide is used to make superior products in high wear applications. Carbide Dies last many times longer than steal dies under heavy impact and heavy wear conditions. While carbide punches can stand up to a beating that would deform their steel counterparts. Another example is that carbide drill bushings typically last over ten times as long as steel bushings.

There are also advantages to working with a carbide cutter. Carbide cutters typically leave a better surface finish and allow for faster machining. 

For all cemented carbides additional strengths they do have a few down sides, for one,  carbide tools are more expensive due to additional effort the involved with forming the harder material. The most common way to shape cemented carbide is to use diamond grinding wheels. Cemented carbide tools are also more brittle than typical tools. To combat this, the cutting tip of the tool is often a small carbide insert mounted or soldered onto a steel shank or cutter. 

Cemented carbide has been used in a wide variety of industries due to its extreme wear properties, everything from medical to mining. For example cemented carbide is used extensively in the global steel industry. Since the 1960’s steel mills have used cemented carbide for the rolls of their mills. Other industrial applications of carbide include automotive components, drawing tools, rotary cutters, forming dies, rings, bushings and many more. 

 

History of Cemented Carbide
Cemented carbide was first developed in Germany during the 1920s, sintered tungsten carbide was developed by a group called the Osram Study Society for Electrical Lighting. However, since they didn’t have the equipment to take advantage of this material, Osram sold the license to the sinister Krupp Company in 1925. In 1926, carbide hit the market under the name WIDIA (like diamond) and was also known by the cool name of Wolfram. Since then cemented carbide, often called tungsten carbide (although this is a more specific term), has proliferated in many industries and as components in machinery. We can expect the uses and production of cemented carbide tooling to continue long into the future.

 

Types of Carbide Dies

Let's get back to the basics. The following carbide dies are used in a wide variety of industries to make everything from nuts and bolts to flutes and missiles. Tungsten carbide dies and tooling have become a major part of modern manufacturing, utilizing the strength of tungsten carbide to form metals and other hard materials into a vast array of shapes, parts and products!

Tungsten Carbide Cold Forming Dies
Cold forming, or cold heading, starts with a cold metal slug placed into a die that is hit with a

As Carbide Dies become more important,
you should know your carbide dies and tooling!

heavy strike to shape it into its desired form. The force from the strike causes the metal to flow
into the desired shape inside the carbide die by exceeding the metal’s yield strength. Modern cold
forming is commonly used for rapidly forming metal parts such as screws, bolts and many other
fasteners.

Tungsten Carbide Drawing Dies 
Drawing (Draw Dies) dies are typically used to shape wire, rod, bar, and tube. Commonly drawn materials include steel, aluminum, and copper.

Tungsten carbide has a high compression strength allowing it to handle extreme pressure; this
makes the material ideal for use in drawing dies. Most major manufacturers use carbide dies in
the drawing process. Drawn materials include mild steel, stainless steel and high carbon steel as
well as other steel alloys. Softer materials, like aluminum or brass, are frequently drawn
as well.

The wire drawing process involves drawing wire through a die to reduce the diameter of the wire
to the desired size while the volume remains the same. Wires are sized by
drawing them through a series of drawing dies, with each die having slightly smaller internal
diameter than the one preceding it to gradually reduce the width of the wire. The final die in the
series forms the wire to its target size.

Tube, or pipe, drawing dies are commonly round, hex or square, but can be made into any shape
desired by the manufacturer. The process of drawing tubing is similar to the wire drawing
process; however, a mandrel is used to form the inner dimensions of the tubing. The mandrel is
inside the tube, or pipe, and situated inside the die. As the tube is drawn through the die it is
being shaped on the inside by the mandrel, which establishes the wall thickness and inner
diameter. A properly formed mandrel will provide for a smooth surface on the inside of the tube or
pipe.

Bars and Rods are drawn in a similar fashion to wire however only they tend to be much thicker. A wide variety of metals are used in this application, including many steel and copper alloys. A cut-off
knife is used to size the rods and bars to length.

Carbide Extrusion Dies
Extrusion dies are typically used in a process where a slug is pushed through the die, forming the

desired cross sectional area. A mandrel is used in the process if the application is for tubing, or
pipes. Extrusion can be performed on a wide variety of materials and at various temperatures to
obtain the desired properties of the extruded product. Materials that can be formed with extrusion
dies include steel, copper, aluminum, tin, lead, nickel and even plastic. Products formed through
extrusion operations include pipe, wire, rods, bars, tubes, and welding electrodes.

 

For information about other types of carbide tooling, check out our comparison of carbide bushings to steel bushings. For information about carbide die suppliers see our recomended Carbide Dies suppliers page.

Machine Shop Humor - 2020 Edition

 Welcome to ye olde machine shoppe humor, Covid edition! We will start with machine shop tools 101...

Machine Shop Tools 101

Here's the world's largest drill bit... or a monument to all those shattered drill bits.

Carbide Drill Bushings Needed.

and if 2020 was a machine...

Lathe Down!

And when it's time for the repair work... 

Machinists and Electricity

and how manufacturing works!

Manufacturing

Happy 2020 machinists, carbide die makers and manufacturers.. Good luck and be safe out there!

Covid-19 and Carbide Dies

With many companies closed down and not working due to Covid 19, a few carbide die, punch and carbide bushing manufacturers are continuing to operate. For your benefit we are supplying information regarding open US manufacturers that are operating in states without shelter in place orders or operating as essential suppliers.

For carbide dies, carbide bushings or carbide punches we recommend using Raven Carbide Die. They are open as an essential manufacturer supplying carbide tooling to the defense, sanitation, medical and infrastructure. Raven Carbide Die has continued to operate as a top tier supplier throughout the pandemic is currently taking on new customers.

As we move forward we will note other companies opening back up, feel free to let us know if your company is open.

We at the Carbide Dies Blog don't like to take things to series like this, so stay safe and here's an idea to help you from the guys that brought you the screwdriver wrench, hammer pliers and knife wrench... a tool for these trying times. The sword wrench.

The deadly wrench sword

Carbide Bushings vs. Steel Bushings

What is better tungsten carbide bushings or heat treated steel bushings? We did our research, looked

Raven Carbide Bushings

at materials, talked to end users and spoke with manufacturers and here's what The Carbide Die Blog discovered about the steel verses carbide bushings.

First off, there isn't a lot of hard data on it, at least not available to the public online. Apparently most companies aren't posting their results from any internal findings. We decided to go straight to the manufacturer and asked one of the leading bushing manufacturers their thoughts. Raven Carbide Die, llc responded and came in on the side of carbide bushings stating, they are "very comfortable saying that our tungsten carbide bushings will last over 10 times as long as steel bushings used in the same application. Depending on the application tungsten carbide can last up to 50 times as long as steel."

Let's take a comparative look at carbide vrs steel bushings using that 10x number. For example when comparing typical press-fit bushings, paying $14.00 for a steel bushing compared to $7.00 for steel will generate a real cost savings of $56 per carbide bushing. ($7 x 10 minus $14) In addition your company will save on labor and by having less production downtime, as bushings are needed to be replaced 10 times less often and production is not halted while bushings are changed.

According to Dan Raven at Raven Carbide Die, "It can be simplified, I've heard it said that carbide is three times as hard as steel and twice as dense. I've also heard tungsten carbide described as the second hardest thing on earth after diamonds, and although this isn't exactly true, you can only cut carbide dies with diamonds."

It's difficult to find exact differences in wear qualities, and this is even more complicated since they use a different scale for tungsten carbide (HRA) vs. Steel (HRC) and there are different grades of both materials but generally speaking on an HRA scale carbide is 83-93 HRA while the hardest heat treated steel is 61-81 HRA.

Basically the wear properties of carbide make carbide bushings the superior product for production, for example in high tech industries like aerospace tungsten carbide bushings are the standard. Steel bushings are less expensive though and they could be the better choice for very short run operations or one time jobs where the project/operation is completed before the bushings wear properties become a factor.

Hopefully this helps clear things up! Please let us  know if you have any questions in the comments below.

By Kana Vic1/23/2020Special thanks to Dan at Raven Carbide Die llc, who can be found on the web at www.RavenCarbideDie.com

Machinist and Die Maker Memes

Welcome to the July, 2019 machinist meme dump of all things interesting to machinists and die makers!

Machinsits - Figuring out how to do things with what they have since 500 BC.

Next level fucking around. This guy CNC machined a cribbage board at work.

Ever get so pissed you decided to just throw your lathe?

Sizes of allen wrenches. Note: Some machinists call these "Hex Keys" but nobody else knows what the fuck they are talking about.

80 threads per inch... you might have to zoom in on this one.

Machinist Grave. RIP Hughes, I would have loved to see you make some dies.

THANKS FOR VISITING! Have a great summer - err, unless you're on the Southern hemisphere.

One More.. Machine Shop Humor. (He doen't give a fuck)

Interesting Die and Tooling Stuff

Interesting Tool and Die Stuff, May 6th Dump

This is no canyon, this is a crack in a steel bar from an electron microscope. I would still visit their though, if I could get myself small enough.

Here's our floor managers new tool. The cat o' nine tails, this keeps the shop floor running!

Thanks from the massive team of writers, editors and artists here at the Carbide Dies Blog!