A carbide bit is a type of tool attachment made out of a specialized metal alloy. Carbide is properly called tungsten carbide and is a specific combination of those two materials. The actual definition of tool bit varies slightly, but it is always the specific part of a tool that contacts the worked material. A carbide bit is much harder than steel, but it is also more brittle. As a result, many larger bits are made of cemented carbide or steel with a brazed carbide tip.

Tungsten carbide is an equal mixture of tungsten and carbon. When the alloy is created, it is typically made as a fine gray powder. This powder is compressed into the desired shape using a modified die-casting process. After hardening into its new shape, this material is extremely hard and can withstand heat that would melt other metals.

In its common form, tungsten carbide is very brittle. While the metal itself is very hard, a carbide plate can break with even slight impacts. To offset this problem, tungsten carbide is often combined with metallic cobalt to create cemented carbide. During the formation process, cobalt liquefies at a much lower temperature than tungsten carbide. This allows the liquid metal to ‘soak in’ to the carbide, greatly increasing its strength.

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The Cemented Carbides are a range of composite materials, which consist of hard carbide particles bonded together by a metallic binder.

The proportion of carbide phase is generally between 70-97% of the total weight of the composite and its grain size averages between 0.4 and 10 μm.

Tungsten carbide (WC), the hard phase, together with cobalt (Co), the binder phase, forms the basic Cemented Carbide structure from which other types of Cemented Carbide have been developed. In addition to the straight tungsten carbide – cobalt compositions – Cemented Carbide may contain varying proportions of titanium carbide (TiC), tantalum carbide (TaC) and niobium carbide (NbC). These carbides are mutually soluble and can also dissolve a high proportion of tungsten carbide. Also, Cemented Carbides are produced which have the cobalt binder phase alloyed with, or completely replaced by, other metals such as iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), or alloys of these elements.

There are three individual phases which make up Cemented Carbide. In metallurgical terms, the tungsten carbide phase (WC) is referred to as the a-phase (alpha), the binder phase (i.e. Co, Ni etc.) as the b-phase (beta), and any other single or combination of carbide phases (TiC, Ta/NbC etc) as the g-phase (gamma). Other than for metal cutting applications, there is no internationally accepted classification of Cemented Carbides.

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The manufacturing process begins with the composition of a specific tungsten carbide powder mixture - tailored for the application.

The tungsten carbide powder is compacted into a form.

In a high-temperature sintering furnace, the tungsten carbide structure of the blank is shaped at precise temperatures for strictly defined periods. During this heat treatment, the tungsten carbide blank undergoes shrinkage of some 50% in volume.

The sintered Cemented Carbide component gains its final finish by additional grinding, lapping and/or polishing processes.

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A unique material
Cemented Carbide is one of the most successful composite engineering materials ever produced. Cemented Carbide's unique combination of strength, hardness and toughness satisfies the most demanding applications.

A key feature of the Cemented Carbide is the potential to vary its composition so that the resulting physical and chemical properties ensure maximum resistance to wear, deformation, fracture, corrosion, and oxidation. In addition, the wide variety of shapes and sizes that can be produced using modern powder metallurgical processing offers tremendous scope to design cost-effective solutions to many of the problems of component wear and failure encountered in both the engineering and domestic environment.

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