The Research& Development Situation for Ultra-fine and Nanometer cemented Carbide Materials (1)
Mr.G Gil from HC Starck company in Germany summarized and reviewed the substantial development of submicron cemented carbide, meanwhile pointed out the ultra-fine cemented carbide took very important role in influence the overall performance of tungsten carbide .For instance ,the WC grain size has been reduced to submicron level ,even lower than 0.2um.For the application of submicron cemented carbide ,Mr.G Gill thought the output of submicron cemented carbide in the worldwide including China would reach 11500~12500 tons in 2000 ,occupying 40% of total output of whole world. In addition ,for the submicron cemented carbide ,the tungsten carbide driller ,and end mills have used most of them ,around 7000~7500 tons ,60%,meanwhile this application is increasing rapidly ,micro-driller in electric industry takes 13%,wear parts, circuit board scissors, knives of paper and plastic ,formed-tooling without chips ,dental cutters take 18%,woodworking tools take 4%,metalworking tools take 5%.Actually micro-driller is the main usage of submicron cemented carbide for machining circuit board, its consumption is increasing continually and significantly. In the past 15 years ,the rotating speed of micro-driller has been improved to 180000r/min from original 80000r/min ,meanwhile ,its diameter is reduced to 200um from 500um ,in addition ,the new generation of micro-driller diameter is low to 70um.
In the application of submicron cemented carbide ,metalworking area only use a small amount of them ,meanwhile ,the test shows submicron cemented carbide is reliable to be used as cutting tools for turning and milling of auto casting parts and aluminum alloy parts .In the meantime ,we expect it is increasing in this area ,especially for the ones with grain size at 0.16um.
