Brief Description of WC Tungsten Carbide Powder

Tungsten carbide powder (chemical formula: WC ) is a chemical compound (specifically, a carbide ) containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms.

In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine Gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes for use in industrial machinery, cutting tools, abrasives, armor-piercing rounds, other tools and instruments, and jewelry.

Physical Properties of WC Tungsten Carbide Powder

Tungsten carbide has a high melting point at 2,870 °C (5,200 °F), a boiling point of 6,000 °C (10,830 °F) when under a pressure equivalent to 1 standard atmosphere (100 kPa), the thermal conductivity of 110 W·m−1·K−1, and a coefficient of thermal expansion of 5.5 µm·m−1·K−1.

Tungsten carbide is extremely hard, ranking about 9 on Mohs scale, and with a Vickers number of around 2600.

It has Young’s modulus of approximately 530–700 GPa, a bulk modulus of 630–655 GPa, and a shear modulus of 274 GPa.

It has an ultimate tensile strength of 344 MPa, the ultimate compression strength of about 2.7 GPa and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.31.

Chemical Properties of WC Tungsten Carbide Powder

There are two well-characterized compounds of tungsten and carbon, WC and tungsten semi abide, W2C.

Both compounds may be present in coatings and the proportions can depend on the coating method.

At high temperatures, WC decomposes to tungsten and carbon and this can occur during high-temperature thermal spray, e.g., in high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) and high energy plasma (HEP) methods.

Application of WC Tungsten Carbide Powder 

1 Used for Producing high capability nano-crystalline or superfine horniness alloy, hard-face abrasion-resistant spraying and petrochemical cracking catalyst;

2. Used for chipless forming tools; Cutting tools; Mining tolls; Nano-composites (for enhanced hardness, strength, and wear resistance);

3. Used for erosion-resistant coatings; wear-resistance coatings; Corrosion-resistant coatings; Wear-resistant parts

4. To produce hard carbide.