The main problems of Chinese tungsten carbide market: Firstly, small-scale enterprises, lower industrial concentration. According to incomplete statistics, 199 carbide enterprises with an average annual capacity of 176 tons, the average annual output is only 86 tons,  more than 1,000 tons is only four enterprises. Secondly, less investment in science and technology, the lack of high-end technical personnel, weakly technology research and development capacity. Chinese tungsten carbide market in science and technology investment in less than 3% sales, scientific and technological research and development level is not high, the original core technology results less. Thirdly, lower product quality level, the product structure to be adjusted. China's tungsten carbide production accounts for more than 40% of the world's total output, but the tungsten carbide sales revenue is less than 20% of the world, mainly due to high-performChinese Tungsten Carbide Market Become Foreign Multinational Strategic Picture's Protagonistance ultra-fine alloy, high-precision high-performance abrasive coating blade, superhard tool materials, Large different products, precision carbide cutting tools, high value-added products such as low yield, lack of deep-processing facilities and varieties due to incomplete.

With the rapid expansion of China's auto industry, auto parts machining demand for cutting tools, China's steel, transportation, construction and other areas of the demand for tungsten carbide is also increasingly strong. Tungsten carbide in the foreign multinational strategic picture, the Chinese market has quietly become a protagonist by the supporting role.

Since the development of China's mold industry, the average annual growth rate of more than 15%, higher than the average value-added domestic GDP more than doubled. In recent years, due to the rapid development of electromechanical, automobile and other fields, China's mold industry has been basically established the status of market economy, but also become the world's new areas of widespread concern.

Some experts believe that restricting the development of China's mold is another major reason for the domestic manufacturing high-precision molds lower capacity. With the continuous development of industry, precision, large-scale, complex, long-life carbide die development will be higher than the total rate of development. At the same time, as in recent years, imports of mold, precision, large-scale, complex, long-life mold majority, therefore, from the reduction of imports, improve the localization rate of view, this kind of domestic high-grade mold in the market share will gradually increase .

At the same time, tungsten carbide punching dies popular in the international market, domestic punching die in China's total import and export of mold occupy the second important position. Tungsten carbide punching dies accounted for 40.33% of the total import and export and 25.12%, has become the field of international stamping die one of the major exporters.

Chinese tungsten carbide punching dies industry is constantly catching up with the world advanced level, and constantly narrowing the technological gap with developed countries, many domestic precision stamping die in the main performance and imported products have been comparable to the overall level of the industry significantly improved, not only to achieve import substitution , And a considerable part of the output to the United States, Japan and other industrialized countries and regions. At present, China's precision punching dies is actively to the international arena, to participate in international competition.

Although there are still some gaps with developed countries, but in accordance with the current development of the domestic industry tips, the next few years, domestic tungsten carbide punching die industry is bound to achieve catch up, to promote the development of the domestic mold industry backbone, enhance the industry as a whole technology Level, to promote the domestic mold industry towards high-end, precision, large-scale, complex development. And requires mold manufacturing technology to better reflect the information technology, digital, fine, high-speed, automation. Industry key enterprises will continue to expand, and will play an increasing role in the industry, public information service platform will be faster development of its various service functions and enhance the productivity of the majority of SMEs will also be the role of More visible.

Tungsten market trend is steady since last week with small transaction volume of tungsten products. The devaluation of RMB which hits 6.7 also affect tungsten price. Tungsten market is expected to be stable in the rest two months.

The age of immersion is a kind of experience, such as VR, which can make outsiders be immersive in what happened. This technology has found live in daily life for everybody.

Transportation applied mobile internet is a part of immersion phenomena, such as working in car, alive meeting, transferring files in long distance. Every driver or passengers can screening what they come across, and use mobile or other equipment to transfer for others who are not in the same place, so that they can have an experience the same. It is like a game that the characters are playing as real human beings.

Digital community one-stop service is also applied the same technology. More and more community services, intelligent buildings, supermarket, after-sales service, pipeline repair, travel services, film culture, etc. are using electronic method to spread, which can reach a goal of off line and on line service for communities. More details can be found as water, electricity, pineline repair and other comprehensive information can share by internet, which means households can pay the fee or call for repair teams by a phone or by computer directly, and with immersion technology, the service can be customized.

Digital square is an immersion service for public. Images and videos showing on transportation hub, airport, railway station, bus station, office building, shopping mall, gas station, fast food restaurant, fitness center, port, square for public, which can show for more people are also applied the same technology. Experiencor can use virtual technology to feel what they see, to be a participant but not an outsider. This technology is in-time and thorough.

For tungsten, using immersion technology is a challenge, buyers can experience the part they buy, to know the processes what their parts is processing out, to know what the parts pack, to know what the parts deliver… they are not only a person buys the product, but knows what the processes for this part.

A new material that emits short-wavelength thermal radiation when heated could be used in systems that convert waste heat into electrical energy. Created by an international team co-led by researchers at Purdue University, the University of Alberta and Hamburg University of Technology, the material comprises alternating layers of 20 nm of tungsten oxide and 100 nm of hafnium oxide.

Tungsten oxide is a chemical compound containing oxygen and the transition metal tungsten. It is obtained as an intermediate in the recovery of tungsten from its minerals. Tungsten ores are treated with alkalis to produce WO3. It is insoluble in H2O and acids, but soluble in hot alkalis. It is n type semiconductor material, the special physical and chemical property make it used in various filed and become the important functional material in modern scientific research.

The structure was chosen so that the emission of long-wavelength infrared photons from the material is suppressed while the emission of shorter wavelength photons is enhanced. These shorter wavelength photons have enough energy to drive a photovoltaic cell, while the longer wavelength photons do not. The research team tested the material by heating it to 1000˚C and using it to power a photovoltaic cell. They found that the new material produced 90% more electrical energy than a conventional black-body infrared emitter. It could someday be used to generate electricity from the waste heat produced by industrial processes and even automobile engines.

Invention and application of modern tungsten carbide materials is the change of  history material, which known as the "industrial teeth", fully reflects the ability of human transformation of nature with tools to enhance the material and improve.

Tungsten carbide tool as a cutting tool, widely used in all aspects of modern manufacturing, with its excellent performance is to guide the high-quality metal cutting market development. China's consumption of cutting tools, about 69% of high-speed steel cutting tools, carbide cutting tools accounted for only about 28% (the rest of the tool system, diamond and cubic boron nitride cutting tools, etc.). Even with the import of tools, cutting tool consumption in China, about 53% for high-speed steel cutting tools, and carbide cutting tools for 45%, while the diamond and cubic boron nitride tool only 2%. The proportion of the world's cutting tool consumption is probably: high-speed steel cutting tools accounted for 35%, 10% of diamond and cubic boron nitride cutting tools, while the welding carbide cutting tools, solid carbide and carbide can be indexed the rest section.


 

This shows that the cutting tool market in China's tool consumption structure can not reach the world average. We can see China as the world's largest metal cutting market its overall level is not enough, high-end carbide cutting tools is not yet developed. This is for the production of carbide is a big country vigilance!

The overall low level of processing and our rising labor costs and the appreciation of the renminbi have hidden the risks of making our Chinese manufacturing less competitive. Economists and entrepreneurs in some countries, including the United States, are considering Will have moved some of the manufacturing enterprises in Asia moved back to their home. To enable us to continue to attract global enterprises to land manufacturing in China, we need to improve our competitiveness, including, of course, improve the manufacturing level. But also in line with the CPC Central Committee on our "second Five-Year" period to change the mode of development requirements, that is, from the number of low-value, high consumption of manufacturing, to the heavy level, high value-added, green manufacturing.

Direction of development for cutting tool market must be high value-added, high-performance carbide cutting tools and other high-end superhard cutting tools become mainstream, high-speed steel and other traditional materials, tool overcapacity, performance and other factors is restricting China's high-end carbide Tool development is an important bottleneck.

In all kinds of sintering technology, microwave heating with heating speed, the overall heating, selective heating and non-thermal effects of traditional heat conduction heating methods do not have the characteristics. WC-Co powder compacts have good coupling absorption to microwave, and the penetration depth of microwaves in the compacts of the mixture is very large. Therefore, the preparation of high-performance tungsten carbide by microwave sintering technology has the traditional heat conduction heating preparation method Unmatched advantages. These advantages are shown in the following aspects: 1, micro-high-performance wave heating fast, holistic not only can significantly shorten the preparation cycle and reduce the sintering temperature, simplifying the process, and can prepare a uniform microstructure, grain Small material. 2, because of the high energy efficiency of microwave and its environment-friendly features, it can at lower cost and less environmental pollution to create greater economic value. 3, the characteristics of microwave heating is very conducive to the development of nano-fine grain hard alloy, gradient cemented carbide, carbide coating and other new high-performance carbide. These advantages make the development of tungsten carbide and microwave sintering technology combined into an inevitable trend.

The WC-Co high performance tungsten carbide was successfully prepared by microwave sintering at the University of Pennsylvania. Compared with the traditional sintering method, microwave sintering can obtain the same degree of shrinkage at lower sintering temperature and shorter holding time. The sintered samples have the same degree of shrinkage in the three dimensional direction, while the traditional sintering method in the vertical direction And the microwave sintered samples have more fine WC grains and more uniform Co phase distribution than the traditional sintered samples. The hardness is higher and the chemical corrosion performance is better. In addition, it was found that there were almost no W atoms in the bonding phase of microwave sintered samples, which was very different from the case of the traditional sintered samples with about 20 wt% W atoms.

Dortmund University of Germany, using W, C and Co mixed powder crushed to microwave sintering, compared to the traditional process of WC and Co mixture briquette sintering, this process not only the synthesis of WC powder and WC-Co green compact Sintering two steps together, effectively simplifying the process, shortening the production cycle of cemented carbide, but also make full use of the carbon atoms in the WC between the release of heat, reducing the energy consumption of sintering. The high-performance tungsten carbide materials obtained by this process are denser, the organization is more compact, and the mechanical properties are improved.


 

The results show that the pure magnetic field heating can not complete the post-sintering of the alloy, because at 1100 ℃ above, the Co in the alloy will change from ferromagnetism to paramagnetism, so that the magnetic field can absorb the microwave magnetic field collapse, so that the magnetic field loss to temperature The sintering temperature of the alloy sample can not be increased continuously. However, WC-Co cemented carbide induction of microwave electromagnetic field mainly in the form of dielectric loss, therefore, the use of pure electric field and electromagnetic hybrid field heating can complete the whole densification of the alloy, and the prepared alloy has a good mechanics The WC grains in the microstructure are uniform, and the Co phase is evenly distributed, forming a good lattice structure.

In addition, for the decarburization in the sintering process, studies have shown that by adding carbon black in the mixture and adding carbon black in the filler can inhibit this decarbonization phenomenon, thereby enhancing the performance of microwave sintered cemented carbide. The results show that when the amount of carbon black is 0.4% (mass fraction), the flexural strength of the alloy is up to 2250 MPa. When the carbon black is added into the filler, the bending strength can be increased to 3172 MPa.

Under the effect of National Day’s holiday, although some enterprises are still waiting to stimulate tungsten market, raw material market is in nervous status, manufacturers only purchase raw material without selling. Dealing amount is decreasing.

WC and Co by the composition of tungsten cobalt-based carbide with excellent hardness and wear resistance and other properties, is a widely used tools, structural materials. However, there is a rejection phenomenon between the transverse rupture strength and the hardness in the tungsten-cobalt type cemented carbide, that is, the hoisting strength will damage the hardness, and the hardness will be weakened by the increase of the hardness. This is a technical problem that has been difficult to solve. The results show that the microstructure with ultra-fine grain characteristics of tungsten and cobalt type cemented carbide, can achieve strength and hardness of the synchronous upgrade; general requirements, the grain size of 0.2 to 0.5 microns of tungsten cobalt-based hard alloy can be called super Fine grain hard alloy. However, in the sintering stage of the preparation of WC-Co cemented carbide, grain growth occurs. In order to achieve tungsten cobalt-based carbide fine grain size, generally from two aspects. Conventional method is to WC and Co mixed powder as raw materials, milling after mixing granulation, and then press forming, and then pressure sintering. In order to avoid grain growth, the grain growth inhibitor such as VC and Cr2C3 was added to the mixed powder. Another idea is the use of small grain size of WC-Co composite powder as raw material. The WC-6% Co composite powder prepared by spray-transformation, calcination and low-temperature reduction carbonization process was used as the raw material. The average grain size was below 50 nm and the distribution was uniform. The ultrafine WC-Co tungsten carbide with grain size of about 400 nm was successfully prepared by wet grinding, forming and pressure sintering without adding grain growth inhibitor, and good results were obtained.

The microstructures of the composites prepared by the composite powders show that the size of WC grains is smaller than 0.5 micrometers, and the size distribution of WC grains is uniform. Bonding, bridging phenomenon is greatly reduced, part of the grain edges and corners dissolved dissolved, the edge is more smooth, so that the application of the alloy is not prone to excessive concentration of stress. These are beneficial to improve the mechanical properties of materials. However, the WC grains in the alloy prepared by the traditional method have abnormal growth phenomenon, which will seriously damage the mechanical properties of ultra-fine cemented carbide.

The strength and hardness of ultrafine WC-Co cemented carbide prepared by composite powder were higher than that of the traditional mixed powder preparation. The tensile strength of the composites was 4304N / mm2, which was much higher than that of the samples prepared with mixed powders (3200N / mm2). The hardness of the composite powders was 93.1HRA, which was also superior to that of the mixed powders The hardness of the sample was prepared (91.5 HRA). The results show that the grain size of the composite powder is small, the average grain size is below 50 nm and the distribution is uniform. The component distribution of the composite powder is uniform, and the distribution of W, C and Co is related to the molecular homogeneity. .

Their experiments also found that the composite powder prepared by ultrafine WC-Co cemented carbide prepared with the traditional method of the material in the coercivity value of the significant difference. According to the analysis, when the content of Co in the alloy is the same, as the grain size of WC decreases, the Co phase dispersion increases, the mean free path decreases and the coercive force increases. The coercivity of the composite powder was 34 kA / m, and the sample prepared by the conventional method was 26.7 kA / m. It is also proved that the WC grain size of the ultrafine WC-Co cemented carbide prepared by using composite powder as raw material is smaller than that of the traditional mixed powder.

An international research team has used tungsten oxide thermal metamaterial to control the emission of radiation at high temperatures, an advance that could bring devices able to efficiently harvest waste heat from power plants and factories. Roughly 50 to 60 percent of the energy generated in coal and oil-based power plants is wasted as heat. However, thermophotovoltaic devices that generate electricity from thermal radiation might be adapted to industrial pipes in factories and power plants, as well as on car engines and automotive exhaust systems, to recapture much of the wasted energy. In new findings, researchers demonstrated how to restrict emission of thermal radiation to a portion of the spectrum most needed for thermophotovoltaic technology.

"These devices require spectrally tailored thermal emission at high temperatures, and our research shows that intrinsic material properties can be controlled so that a very hot object glows only in certain colors," said Zubin Jacob, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. "The main idea is to start controlling thermal emission at record high temperatures in ways that haven't been done before." The thermal metamaterial – nanoscale layers of tungsten oxide and hafnium oxide – was used to suppress the emission of one portion of the spectrum while enhancing emission in another.

The basic operating principle of a photovoltaic cell is that a semiconducting material is illuminated with light, causing electrons to move from one energy level to another. Electrons in the semiconductor occupy a region of energy called the valence band while the material is in the dark. But shining light on the material causes the electrons to absorb energy, elevating them into a region of higher energy called the conduction band. As the electrons move to the conduction band, they leave behind "holes" in the valance band. The region between both bands, where no electrons exist, is called the band gap.

Future research will include work to convert heat radiation from a thermal metamaterial to electron-hole pairs in a semiconducting material, a critical step in developing the technology. The thermophotovoltaic technology might be ready for commercialization within seven years, Jacob said.