Talk:Tungsten carbide

Preparation

How do you make Tungsten Carbide?

By reacting tungsten and carbon at high temperatures. I can't yet find a reference for exactly how high. Physchim62 20:50, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Why isn't this explained better then ????

I found this patent http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7108831.html which seems to suggest that it can be produced by high temperature reaction of tungsten oxides with a carbon dioxide/monoxide mixture. This one in particular mentions the inclusion of hydrogen in the gas mixture, but several other patents do not. I'm not sure of the exact industrial method that is most widely used. Naffer 01:27, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The method most commonly used in the industry is sintering followed by grinding.

Veddan 10:00, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Neutron reflector

There was a "trivia" section here mentioning the death of Louis Slotin; I removed it, since trivia sections suck. (Except maybe for articles on episodes of television shows, where nobody cares. :-) What is worth adding to the article is that tungsten carbide has been/is used as a neutron reflector, but I have no idea how to put in any more than "tungsten carbide has been used as a neutron reflector", which is a bit lacking. If anyone has more details (besides the lame "there once was a criticality accident involving tungsten carbide"), do add. JRM · Talk 10:04, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

SEE for example: Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing By Richard Lee Miller Published by Two-Sixty Press, 1986 ISBN 0029216206, / Corrosion Induced by Low-energy Radionuclides: Modeling of Tritium and Its Radiolytic and Decay Products Formed in Nuclear Installations By Gilbert Bellanger Published by Elsevier, 2005 ISBN 0080445101. Neutron reflectors are used to bring the radioactive material to criticality by reflecting neutrons back into the mass that would otherwise be lost.76.110.165.21 (talk) 00:28, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

copy(paste)vio?

This series of additions seems to have grabbed information directly from hardmaterials.sandvik.com (like this page. --Splarka (rant) 07:06, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I removed the copyrighted material and warned the user with {{subst:nothanks|Tungsten carbide}}. —Keenan Pepper 14:50, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

71.113.22.200's "Ditungsten Carbide" edits

Is this "Ditungsten Carbide" business legit? —Ben FrantzDale 05:26, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it is. It seems very weird that a ionic compound would have an organic prefix, but the same occures with Manganese (IV) Oxide, it is more commonly known as manganese dioxide. Assume that ditungsten carbide refers to the lower oxidation state, tungsten 2+ and mono refers to the higher oxidation state 4+. Kyanite 23:56, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

In fiction ???

The "In fiction" section adds nothing to our knowledge of tungsten carbide; if they are of interest to anyone at all, it would be Monty Python fans or Halo fans, not tungsten carbide users. Tungsten carbide is probably mentioned thousands of times in fiction of various sorts, why would an encyclopedia mention any of them? How does one decide which fictional mentions are encyclopedic and which aren't? I think this section should be deleted, any other opinions? Sparohok 06:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Armor-piercing ammunition?

The bulk of information regarding the Applications comes from http://www.tungstenchina.com/product/Tungsten-Carbide-Products-763.html, so someone should take a further look at that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.78.32.24 (talk) 03:03, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

The article seems to be stating that bulk tungsten carbide has been used to fashion AP rounds, but I wonder about this.

Tungsten carbide is very brittle. It is a dense material, with density around 15 g/cc, but not nearly as dense as tungsten or depleted uranium, which are in the 18-19 g/cc range. Pure tungsten and the "heavy metal" compositions of cemented tungsten bound with sintered nickelbronze are still very hard, but more malleable and ductile and less prone to shattering on impact with armor. As far as I am aware, "heavy metal" is in common use today in AP projectiles, but tungsten carbide is not.

Not to long ago i watched a video on youtube about the .50 BMG, one of the marines in the video refered to the M-2(?) armor peircing round as having a tungsten carbide core. just a thought.Kyanite 23:59, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Tungsten carbide was a brittle material but that was compared to steel. Much of the armor piercing work was done by Dr. Irwin Rudy of Pacific Hardmetals in Forest Grove, OR. Use of Nickel instead of Cobalt made a much tougher part. Also the way the force is directed has a tremendous effect. I’m not sure a tornado ever forced straw through a board but I do have picture or piece of plywood forced through a tree.

Carbide is extremely strong in compression but weak in tension. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomwalz (talk • contribs) 18:16, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Found a toxicological profile for tungsten made by the U.S. Department of health and human services (august 2005). It talks mainly about the use of tungsten carbide for machining but it also talks about ammunition on pages 22 and 31 I found it here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp186.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.7.200.196 (talk) 05:38, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

AP rounds cab be capped for ballistic purposes, and also to enhance the penetration of tungsten carbide cores, by prevention of shattering. Hence "APCBC" for armour piercing capped ballistic capped".

Tungsten carbide armour piercing rounds were invented and used long before the Second World War. Some pre-war weapons only used tungsten carbide AP rounds, such as the French mle 37 APX gun of 1937. This weapon was considered a military secret, as its performance so far exceeded the 1930s average. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aforandy (talk • contribs) 12:33, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Use of tungsten carbide rounds by 37mm cannon on Stukas is a somewhat redundant use since standard AP rounds would also be effective against the top profile of all vehicles, armoured or soft. Similarly an ace close support pilot would be able to achieve better result with the less effective round, and of course they didn't restrict their attacks to T-34s.

The choice Germany faced in the late-war period was to use its available tungsten carbide for machine tools used in weapon production, or to fire it off as armour-piercing rounds. They chose the former course, and tungsten carbide rounds, called "AP40" or "Arrowhead" in some German usage, became increasingly rare from 1943 onwards.

Portugal was one of Nazi Germany's few neutral and accessible source of tungsten ore, and even today the national bank is reputed to have in its vaults a few gold bars stamped with the swastika. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aforandy (talk • contribs) 12:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

trivia

In other languages tungsten-carbide is called 'vidia' from German expression "vie diamant" (like diamond) - Valdez from Hungary —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.2.192.174 (talk) 13:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Toxicity?

Jewelry pieces made primarily of tungsten carbide (and other binding metals) have been available for a while now, but the links to the material safety data on this page suggest that tungsten carbide may be toxic through skin contact. Am I misinterpreting something, or do these hazard warnings apply only to the substance when powdered?

The powder associated with manufacture and grinding carbide is toxic, causing heavy metal poisoning. Once the piece has completed all grinding and polishing it is safe. Tool grade tungsten carbide uses Cobalt to bind the tungsten grains together. Since cobalt is toxic, nickle is used as a binder in tungsten carbide jewelry. R. Duffield

one article - two compounds

We have two interstitial compounds known colloquially as tungsten carbide- but only one article with one chembox. It would be better if this article was split into two separate ones (for WC and W₂C) with a disambiguation page for tungsten carbide. --Axiosaurus (talk) 10:42, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

jewelry

I made a boo-boo on the references, and i don't know how to fix it i was trying to get the jewelry citation to go to http://www.forevermetals.com/jewelry-tungsten-carbide-ring/ because it talks about the cobalt in Tungsten carbide jewelry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.14.209.24 (talk) 03:14, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

I do not see the legitimacy of this website. They do not update their information and there are no pictures or proof a validity. Not to mention much of the text is duplicated http://www.trewtungsten.com/ should be cited for the tungsten carbide ring source for he has several patents on it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Greg995 (talk • contribs) 01:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Those patents are currently being fought over in court and are highly questionable. There is prior art and it was an obvious concept... Trew Tungsten has not won a single case, although several have been settled for very small sums. Further, I don't see why they should be cited because they may or may not hold a valid patent in one country for one use of one kind of this entire metal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.250.35.158 (talk) 19:06, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Domestic uses cleanup

This section in particular sounds awkward due to the addition of the last paragraph which intentionally conflicts with other information. This info needs to be integrated, and preferably be properly sourced. --Jmeden2000 (talk) 18:47, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Are machine tools solid carbide or coated?

I am honestly unclear whether machine tools are solid carbide or just a coating, perhaps the article should clarify. If I have a small triangular "carbide insert" for a turning tool, is that a solid hunk of tungsten carbide-cobalt composite? If I have a "carbide" endmill, is the whole thing including the shank one big piece of tungsten carbide-cobalt composite? What about a "carbide" saw blade? Are any of these tools made with just a coating of tungsten carbide-cobalt on top of some other material? Or are they available in either coated or solid versions?

Also, how big are the particles of WC in the composite? I would think they must be really small, because carbide tools are sometimes fairly reflective, and big grains would give a more matte appearance.66.92.68.214 (talk) 08:10, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Most of your endmills are C2 solid carbide. Saws can be either solid carbide, or be of steel with carbide 'tips' inserted on each cutting surface. Some endmills are coated with TiN (that gives them a golden yellow color), which will decrease tool wear. Your higher quality endmills are made of micrograin material which has an average grain size of .8 microns. Depending on the application, some endmills may be manufactured with a grain size of .5 microns. Most of the saws that i have seen have had a grain size of 2-5 microns. Saws are generally made from a 6% Co mixture, while endmills are generally made from a 10% cobalt mixture (ie 10%Co, 90%WC). Other elements (refractory carbides) may be added to control grain growth during sintering (Cr3C2,TiC, TaC, etc), but this is usually kept at 5% of the binder (Co) content for endmills...any higher and you run the risk of compromising the Transverse Rupture Strength. R. Duffield

Is it alloy?

--Dojarca (talk) 07:12, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

No, but it may be nonstoichiometric. Materialscientist (talk) 07:21, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

WC structure drawing has five carbon bonds?

In the structural drawing of WC or tungsten carbide, it looks to me as if there are five bonds from each carbon (gray atoms in drawing), which stands at odds with all of my learning that carbon has a total of four bonds per atom. What gives? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.147.68.236 (talk) 18:25, 9 June 2010 (UTC)