Native tungsten carbide powder refers to WC prepared from native tungsten powder and carbon, which is the so called tungsten carbide powder. A relatively product of native tungsten carbide powder is the reproduced tungsten carbide powder, which refers to WC prepared from waste hard alloy, waste tungsten powder or other recycling material.
Native tungsten carbide powder (WC) is the main raw material for the production of cemented carbide, black hexagonal crystals with metallic luster, which has the hardness closes to diamond, excellent electricity and thermal and other properties. The product of pure tungsten carbide powder is frangible, but the addition of a small amount of titanium, cobalt and other metals can reduce its brittleness; while the using of steel cutting tool is usually adding titanium carbide and tantalum carbide, or their mixtures for improving the anti-knock ability. Studies have pointed out, the manufacture of hard alloy cutting tools must use native tungsten carbide powder, otherwise, holes will appear in the sintering process, and therefore to carry out some quality problems of chipping etc.
Microstructure analysis of native tungsten carbide powder showed that:
1. Micro-strain exists in native tungsten carbide powder, but its degree can be controlled by changing process conditions;
2. The microstructure of tungsten carbide powder is closely related to the preparation temperature of tungsten powder and the carbonization temperature, increasing the reaction temperature will make the tungsten carbide structure becomes complete, while the preparation temperature of tungsten powder has a more important role;
3. Efficiency of the wet milling process is related with the structure of native tungsten carbide powder, which shows that the powder with structural integrity is easily broken.
