Tungsten Carbide Rods

Tungsten carbide alloy rods, with their excellent properties such as high hardness, wear resistance, heat resistance, and strong corrosion resistance, have wide applications in multiple industrial fields and special scenarios.

Products Provided by Kedel

Tungsten carbide alloy rods are rod-shaped wear-resistant materials made from tungsten carbide powder and binder metals like cobalt through powder metallurgy. They combine high hardness, wear resistance, and high-temperature resistance.

Solid Tungsten Carbide Rod

Single-Hole Tungsten Carbide Rod

Spiral/Straight Double-Hole Tungsten Carbide Rod

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Want to customize a suitable tungsten carbide alloy rod? Please provide the equipment adaptation information, the performance standards for the rod (such as hardness, precision, etc.), and the actual operating environment (temperature, corrosion and other working conditions). The engineer will customize the solution and communicate with you within 72 hours.

What is a tungsten carbide alloy rod?

Tungsten carbide alloy rods exhibit remarkable performance, playing an indispensable role across multiple industries. In metal cutting, they serve as high – strength, wear – resistant tool bits for lathes and milling machines, enabling precise and efficient material removal. In mining and geological exploration, their toughness and abrasion resistance make them ideal for manufacturing drill rods and mining tools, ensuring stable rock – breaking and sampling operations. In the field of mechanical engineering, they are used to produce high – precision wear – resistant parts like shafts and pins in heavy – duty equipment.

Manufacturing mainly adopts the powder metallurgy process. Tungsten carbide powder is first mixed with a proper binder in accurate proportions, then compacted into preforms, and sintered at elevated temperatures to firmly bond the particles. Subsequently, precision machining processes such as grinding and turning are carried out to guarantee dimensional accuracy and surface finish.

With superior performance, tungsten carbide alloy rods are extensively applied in crucial equipment. This includes cutting tools in the machining industry, drill rods in mining and petroleum exploration, high – wear – resistant components in hydraulic machinery, as well as core parts in precision instruments, all depending on them to maintain efficient and stable operation.

Types of tungsten carbide rods

Different types of carbide rods have their own features and are designed for specific applications. The following are some commonly used tungsten carbide rod types.

Solid carbide rods

Structural Feature: Homogeneous integral structure, without additional hole – type designs. The whole rod body is made of carbide material, ensuring uniform material properties.
Functional Advantage: Offers high overall hardness, excellent wear resistance and structural integrity. Can maintain stable performance under general cutting, stamping and other force – bearing conditions.
Typical Applications: General – purpose machining scenarios such as common cutting tools (e.g., lathe turning tools for simple metal cutting), mold cores for low – complexity molds, and wear – resistant parts with basic shape requirements.

Carbide rods with straight coolant holes

Structural Feature: On the basis of the solid carbide rod, there are straight – through cylindrical coolant holes. The holes are parallel to the axis of the rod, and the inner channel has no sudden contraction or expansion.
Functional Advantage: When coolant passes through, it can form a relatively stable flow state, effectively reducing pressure loss. It helps in timely heat dissipation during machining, reducing tool wear and improving workpiece machining accuracy.
Typical Applications: Machining operations that require certain cooling effects, like drilling tools in medium – speed drilling processes (assisting in cooling the drill bit), and cutting tools for continuous cutting of ordinary metal materials (such as cutting steel bars on general lathes).

Carbide rods with spiral coolant holes

Structural Feature: There are spiral – shaped coolant holes inside the rod. The holes spiral along the axis of the rod, changing the flow path of the coolant.
Functional Advantage: The spiral design makes the coolant generate a swirling flow during circulation, which can enhance the heat exchange efficiency, and better take away the heat generated during machining. At the same time, the swirling coolant can also play a role in chip removal to a certain extent, reducing the accumulation of chips.
Typical Applications: High – speed and high – load machining fields, such as high – speed milling cutters for precision machining (meeting the high cooling and chip removal requirements of high – speed cutting), and drilling tools for deep – hole drilling (effectively cooling and removing chips in the deep – hole environment).

Application Scenarios of rods

Tungsten carbide alloy rods, with their high hardness, wear resistance, and high-temperature resistance, are widely used in industries with strict material performance requirements such as mechanical processing, mining drilling, electronics & semiconductors, petroleum, aerospace, and chemical engineering.

metal processing industry

Mining and Geological Exploration Equipment

Manufacturing of Wear - Resistant Components

Mold Manufacturing

What Products Are Commonly Used For ?

Tungsten carbide alloy rods are applied in metal – machining milling cutters, mining – equipment picks, and wear – resistant bushings, leveraging their hardness and wear resistance to enable machining, excavation, and friction – reduction functions.

Metal Machining – Milling Cutters

Milling cutters are utilized for milling operations to shape metal workpieces, with rotating cutters removing material from the workpiece surface to enable processes like face milling, end milling, and slot milling. The high hardness and wear resistance of tungsten carbide ensure prolonged tool life, while precision – ground cutting edges maintain sharpness for accurate, smooth cuts on metals such as steel and aluminum; they are typically applied in machining complex contours in automotive parts (e.g., engine blocks), creating slots in aerospace components, and finishing molds/dies.

Mining Equipment – Mining Picks

Mining picks are mounted on mining machines like shearers and roadheaders to break and extract coal or rock, with their pick heads bearing direct impact and abrasion during excavation; the tungsten carbide tip withstands extreme impact from rock fragmentation and abrasive wear from mineral particles, while the tough cobalt – based binder in the alloy prevents tip chipping, making them suitable for coal mining (shearing coal seams), tunneling (excavating hard rock), and quarrying (breaking stone deposits).

Wear – Resistant Parts – Bushings

Bushes act as wear – resistant sleeves in machinery to reduce friction between rotating or shifting components (e.g., shafts and housings). Tungsten carbide bushes offer exceptional hardness (resisting abrasive wear), low friction, and a dense structure that prevents deformation under high loads, making them suitable for heavy – duty equipment like excavators (arm pivot bushes), hydraulic cylinders (piston rod bushes), and industrial presses (guide bushes).

Mold Manufacturing – Screw Molds

Screw molds are used in injection molding or extrusion to shape molten plastic into screw – like products (such as fasteners and thread inserts), with the mold cavity defining the thread profile and dimensions. Tungsten carbide’s high hardness and polishability ensure precise and smooth thread surfaces, while its resistance to thermal fatigue prevents mold degradation during repeated heating and cooling cycles, making these molds suitable for producing plastic screws in electronics (e.g., phone cases), medical devices (e.g., syringe components), and automotive interiors (e.g., fastening clips).

What parameters need to be understood?

Understanding the parameters of tungsten carbide alloy rods (encompassing material composition, geometric dimensions, and physical properties) enables accurate alignment with application scenarios, ensuring product performance, service life, and stable equipment operation.

Material Composition Parameters

Parameter	Description	Performance & Application
Tungsten Carbide (WC) Content	Directly affects hardness and wear resistance. Higher WC content (e.g., 90%–97%) boosts hardness (up to HRA 89–93) but reduces toughness. For instance, cutting – tool alloy rods often adopt high WC content for wear resistance. Selection should match working conditions: Impact – prone scenarios like mining drilling require balanced toughness, so alloys with lower WC (e.g., 85%–90%) and higher cobalt (Co) content are preferred.	Hardness and wear resistance rise with higher WC, while toughness drops. – High WC: Used in cutting tools for wear resistance. – Lower WC (85%–90%) + high Co: Preferred for impact – resistant mining/drilling scenarios.
Binder Phase (Cobalt/Nickel, etc.) Content	Cobalt (Co) is a common binder, usually accounting for 3%–15%: Higher Co content enhances alloy toughness, making it suitable for impact – resistant applications (e.g., geological drilling); lower Co content is ideal for high – hardness cutting scenarios.	Cobalt enhances alloy toughness. – High Co: Suited for impact – resistant scenarios (e.g., geological drilling). – Low Co: Fits high – hardness cutting applications.

Geometric And Dimensional Parameters

Parameter	Description	Specifications & Applications
Diameter and Length	Defines the rod’s dimensional compatibility with equipment and operational needs, covering size range, customizable length, and precision standards.	• Diameter: 0.5mm–50mm (suits interfaces like lathe tool holders, drill fixtures). • Length: Customized (e.g., 50mm–300mm for cutting tools; multi-meter lengths for drilling rods). • Precision: ±0.01mm diameter tolerance and Ra≤0.8μm surface roughness for precision machining scenarios.
Cross-Section Shape	Refers to the rod’s cross-sectional geometry, selected based on tool structural requirements.	• Most common: Circular rods. • Special shapes: Square, hexagonal, etc. (e.g., applied in milling cutter shanks, mold punches, where non-circular profiles align with tool design needs).

Physical Property Parameters

Parameter	Description	Specifications & Applications
Diameter and Length	Defines the rod’s dimensional compatibility with equipment and operational needs, covering size range, customizable length, and precision standards.	• Diameter: 0.5mm–50mm (suits interfaces like lathe tool holders, drill fixtures). • Length: Customized (e.g., 50mm–300mm for cutting tools; multi-meter lengths for drilling rods). • Precision: ±0.01mm diameter tolerance and Ra≤0.8μm surface roughness for precision machining scenarios.
Cross-Section Shape	Refers to the rod’s cross-sectional geometry, selected based on tool structural requirements.	• Most common: Circular rods. • Special shapes: Square, hexagonal, etc. (e.g., applied in milling cutter shanks, mold punches, where non-circular profiles align with tool design needs).

Microstructure And Manufacturing Process Parameters

Parameter	Description	Performance & Implications
Grain Size	Classified by particle dimension: Ultrafine grain (<1μm); coarse grain (>2μm).	• Ultrafine grain: Enhances hardness and wear resistance, ideal for precision machining (e.g., micro – cutting tools). • Coarse grain: Improves toughness, suitable for heavy – load conditions (e.g., mining drill rods).
Sintered Density	Ideal density ≥99% (verified via metallographic inspection for porosity); low density weakens structural strength.	• High density: Ensures optimal mechanical properties (e.g., strength, wear resistance). • Low density: Indicates insufficient sintering, reducing service life (e.g., prone to fracture under load).
Surface Treatment	Optional processes: Coatings (e.g., TiN, TiC), polishing, or plating; requires clear specification of surface requirements.	• Coatings: Boost wear resistance (e.g., TiC – coated rods for abrasive environments). • Polishing/plating: Improves surface finish (e.g., Ra≤0.2μm for precision tools) or corrosion resistance.

Application Adaptation Parameters

Parameter	Description	Implications
Working Conditions	Cutting speed & feed rate: High-speed cutting (e.g., >100m/min for steel machining) requires high-hardness alloys; low-speed heavy loads (e.g., mining crushing) demand high-toughness alloys. Contact media: Corrosive environments (e.g., oil drilling) need corrosion-resistant binders (e.g., nickel-based alloys).	– Matches alloy properties to operational loads (high-hardness for speed, high-toughness for impact). – Ensures chemical resistance (e.g., nickel-binder for corrosive media).
Industry Standards and Certifications	Refer to ISO, ASTM, or GB standards (e.g., GB/T 2075-2007). Confirm suppliers provide performance test reports (hardness, flexural strength data).	– Guarantees compliance with industry norms. – Enables quality control and traceable performance validation.