The Penumbra mine is an underground coal mine in South Africa. The company has been struggling with its so-called continuous miners sections. Continuous mining utilizes a Continuous Miner Machine with a large rotating steel drum equipped with tungsten carbide teeth that scrape coal from the seam. Conveyors transport the removed coal from the seam.

Continental Coal Ltd Wednesday said it is still trying to complete a recapitalization that will allow it to settle its convertible notes that mature between November of last year and February of this year, but so far hasn't been able to reach a deal and it warned it may have to appoint administrators.

California Tungsten Carbide Knife and Blade and its global brand Baucor are excited to enter 2014 with state of the art grinding technologies to make industrial tungsten carbide blades and machine knives. California Knife and Blade and Baucor will continue on their commitment in 2014 to manufacturing and supplying highest quality industrial blades, machine knives, and surgical medical blades at affordable prices and within the quickest turnaround time while delivering exceptionally right on time.

A proprietary coatings process, capable of tungsten carbide coating surfaces as flat as 12 millionth of an inch and finishes finer than 1Ra, has been developed by Longevity Coatings, Allentown, PA, for valve components used in oil and gas drilling wellhead equipment.

The finished products—valve sealing tungsten carbide rings and slab gates—are capable of a service life two to three times those produced by competitive coaters and even those of Original Equipment Manufacturers, said Mark Purington, owner and general manager of Longevity.

Wellhead valves are critical components in the drilling process, noted Purington. The wellhead –the structure on the surface of a drilling site— controls the flow of gas or oil during production. Valves in the wellhead are subject to pressures that can reach as high as 20,000 psi. Failure to maintain pressure control at the wellhead could lead to a well blowout.

Purington pointed out that typical wellhead valves have two critical components: the sliding slab gate, which opens and closes to permit passage of fluids, and its mating opposite, the seat or sealing rings. Because of the intense high pressure brought to bear on the valves, the two opposing components cannot employ the types of non-metallic seals often used in industry in similar situations. “Both components are metal, with no intervening sealing materials. Because of this metal-to-metal contact, the surfaces of both the slab and seat must be perfectly flat to ensure there is no possible leakage.”

When the valve components become worn, wellhead operators routinely replace or refurbish them. Longevity can refurbish a slab or seat at a cost as little as one third that of purchasing new components, Purington estimated. “We have all the in-house technology required to take your gate, strip off the old coating, apply a new tungsten carbide coating of high quality tungsten carbide, apply our proprietary flat-finish process—free of any scratches-- and return them in a reasonable time frame.” The final product, he added, is a coating surface as flat as 12 millionth of an inch and a finish finer than 1Ra ---well above the industry standard. Installed, he added, “they will function at or above OEM quality.”

Although Purington sees wellhead service contractors as the primary market for Longevity’s flat-surface process, “We anticipate that some OEMs—wishing to improve still further the service life of their newly manufactured valve components—might want to utilize our services as well.”

Founded in 2005, Longevity Coatings, offers thermal spray coatings services for many parts and equipment components used in the mining and oil/gas drilling industries, including new and rebuilt drive shafts, slurry blenders, fracturing plungers, high pressure pumps, pump plungers and pistons, augers, valves, valve seats, valve tips and valve assembles and impact rings.

The company’s Allentown plant is equipped to apply diffusion bonded metal, ceramic and carbide coatings to virtually any type or size of mining apparatus or accessory, noted Purington. The company’s largest coating handling system can swing parts in excess of 18’ at a diameter of 50". In addition, “our multi-axis computer- directed motion control systems and mechanical multi-spindle setups provide the handling apparatus for processing shafts, sleeves, plungers, valves and numerous other coating applications.”


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It is an amazing story which saw founders Neill (corr) Ricketts (corr) and Will Battrick (corr) leave successful executive positions in a leap of faith to found the Forest of Dean-based advanced materials firm, which now employs more than 50 staff.

Yesterday’s interim statement also outlined operating losses of £190,000, but that cannot detract from the excitement the management feel for their business, a confidence underlined by "best recognised" fund manager Henderson Global taking a 10.31 per cent stake in Versarien.

What its results underline is a company which sees "significant growth" ahead and an ability to deliver "a substantial return on investment".

Key to the success of the porous metals specialist has been the acquisition of the business Total Carbide, a manufacturer of tungsten carbide machine parts for a number of key industries.

California Knife and Blade and its global brand Baucor are excited to enter 2014 with state of the art grinding technologies to make industrial blades and machine knives, and materials include carbon steel, spring steel, tool steel, D2 tool steel, M2 high speed steel, tungsten carbide, CPM 10V and 9V, 400 series stainless steel, 300 series stainless steel, 1075 and 1095 spring steels. . The blade materials are heat treated and hardened in strictly controlled ovens.

One of their specialty is to custom make surgical (medical) knife blades. Areas include orthopedic saw blades, ophthalmic surgery blades, general surgery, neurological surgeries, plastic surgery, all made from tungsten carbide. While they mainly focus on developing prototype blades for major medical device OEMs and producers, they also have some capability manufacture small to medium volume surgical blades and medical knives.

Freshly fallen snow is picturesque and beautiful. However, it never stays that way, because we have to trek out into it to carry on with our daily lives. If you want to take on the winter with renewed confidence, then the Retractable Spike Snow Boots will very likely be of use. These are a warm and soft pair of winter boots that have six 3-spike crowns of tungsten carbide hiding in the sole of the shoe. This material is harder than steel, yet slightly softer than a diamond.

Even with a nice pair of boots that have a lot of traction, the ice will still catch you off guard now and again. As the days go by, we’ll occasionally have higher temperatures which melt the snow, which later refreezes into ice. You can put out sidewalk salt all you’d like, but after a certain temperature, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

By turning a dial in the heel 360 degrees, the spikes will discharge, giving you a way to tread over the ice without acting like you’re walking on eggshells. The interior consists of a lambskin inner sole, and a leather upper. It is both breathable, and will make sure your toes stay toasty. This will cost you around $380, but will help you to keep from planting your rump meat in the snow on a daily occasion in the winter months.

“We chose to partner with Mr. Smith and DCI because we see tremendous opportunities ahead,” said Jeffery Christman, Managing Director of Rock Hill. “Two decades of positive results and a solid customer base help position DCI for strong growth. Moving forward, we plan to help Mr. Smith and his team streamline the operations, expand beyond current end markets into new ones and embrace new plating technologies, including the most recent addition tungsten carbide spray coating to its service offering. With limited competition in the arena, we see significant value enhancement opportunities ahead.”

“What struck me most about Rock Hill as an investment partner was their interest in partnering with us rather than taking over,” said Cliff Smith, Sr., Chairman of DCI. “They worked with us to develop a solid plan to streamline and consolidate our operations in order to better prepare us for significant growth and expansion. I’m confident that the future of DCI is on solid ground.”

 Rock Hill Capital Group (Rock Hill) has announced its investment in Oklahoma City-based Duracoatings Holdings, LLC (Duracoatings or DCI), the largest provider of chrome reworking and coating of downhole motor-related tools in the United States.

In 1993, Duracoatings was established by Cliff Smith, Sr. DCI continues to perform work in the metal finishings industry, providing electroplating, thermal spraying, grinding and polishing for the oil and gas industry, plus many other industries which deploy hydraulics, pumps, valves, and drilling tools.


Tungsten Carbide Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.tungsten-carbide.com.cn
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Sumitomo Electric has created a domestic recycling system, which completes all recycling processes of precious tungsten in Japan, by collecting scrap tungsten carbide inserts and rotary tools sorted by Toyota and reprocessing them as recycled tungsten carbide products.

Today, more and more super-hard, lightweight materials, such as titanium, Inconel® and new aluminum alloys, are desired in various industrial fields including aerospace, defense, energy, and transport. The hardness of these materials, however, inevitably creates a demand for more accurate and advanced machining, which is the most urgent issue in the metal-working industry in order to achieve a competitive edge in the global market.

Emphasizing environmental issues as one of the most important challenges for our business, Sumitomo Electric will continue to meet customer demands and spare no effort in reducing the environmental impact in all aspects of the life cycle of tungsten carbide tools: production, use, regrinding, and recycling.

Once upon a time, encountering rock formations during a bore could completely stall an horizontal directional drilling (HDD) operation. Back then, if rock was encountered, bores would be abandoned.

Fast forward to today and a time in which advancements in tooling technology and processes have made rock drilling commonplace and opened a vast market for both HDD contractors and utility service providers.
But even today, the right tools and processes can mean the difference between completing the job and completing it profitably — and there’s a lot of homework to be done before tool selection can begin.

“It’s important to gather as much information as possible about the soil conditions and rock formations along the bore path before you ever start,” says Sharewell HDD president Greg Wilson. He encourages contractors to take core samples, test the hardness of the rock and map formation changes on the bore plan, “so the driller will know when he’ll be entering and leaving different formations,” he says.

Additionally, make sure you have the right rig for the job. For the tooling to work as designed, it must be powered by a drilling rig with enough thrust and torque to turn the tooling properly and cut the hole efficiently. A proper drilling fluid program is also critical, as fluid must be pumped at a higher volume during rock bores in order to both clean the hole and provide the hydraulic power to operate some types of downhole equipment.

The latest model of smart pen looks and feels pretty much like a real, regular pen, and writes that way as well, with tungsten carbide ball as the ballpoint. Customers' average user might not even notice, as the weight and balance are great, and the motion and movement quite good. Filled with a decent cartridge, their Swiss-made tungsten-carbide ballpoint ink flows smoothly. As with all similar smartpens, the only slight annoyance is that you have to use special paper with the system. Fifty sheets are included and you can print or buy additional quite easily. The paper features nearly invisible dots that allow the pen to track exactly where it is on the page.

Unlike prior models, this one transmits them nearly instantly to a nearby device using Bluetooth wireless. Simply pair your iPhone or iPad with the pen, and you know have an instant way to capture and store your handwriting. Pen emails and immediately send them, or have your grocery lists saved for posterity. If you want, you can also convert your scrawls to useful text, using pretty accurate OCR (optical character recognition). We found it to be about 90% accurate, either while using cursive or otherwise- better than we expected! Any iOS 7 device will work, and though Android is not currently supported, the company claims that this model will be have compatibility forthcoming in 2014.