InVinCer tungsten carbide from Blasch, bonded with nickel or cobalt, for chokes, valves and wear parts that see impact and corrosion.
Hard enough for erosion, tough enough for the hit a ceramic would not take.
And heavier and costlier than both suggest.
Tungsten carbide is better than a ceramic for wear when a part sees impact, very high velocity flow or thin edges that a brittle ceramic would chip, as in chokes, valve trim and small flow control parts. Its metallic binder makes it tougher than silicon carbide or alumina. For large wear shapes, weight sensitive parts and high temperature, a bonded or reaction bonded silicon carbide is usually the better and less expensive choice.
Tungsten carbide (WC) for wear parts is a cemented carbide: hard tungsten carbide grains held together by a metal binder. The binder gives the part its toughness, the carbide grains give it its hardness.
InVinCer by Blasch tungsten carbide is bonded with either 6% nickel or 6% cobalt. It combines high hardness and mechanical strength for severe applications with abrasion, high temperature or corrosion.
Nickel or cobalt: cobalt is the common binder for abrasion. Nickel resists corrosive media better and is chosen where the fluid attacks the binder.
Tungsten carbide does not win on hardness alone; it wins where a ceramic would break, and that toughness is what justifies its weight and its price.
Impact: coarse particles, slugs of solids or a valve that slams shut. A cemented carbide absorbs the hit where a ceramic can chip.
High velocity at a restriction: chokes, orifices and reducers where flow accelerates. Thin sections and sharp edges hold up better in carbide.
Threads, seals and tight fits: the metallic binder lets a carbide part take clamping and thread loads that a ceramic part has to be designed around.
Large parts: tungsten carbide is very dense and expensive. For a cyclone liner, a pipe spool or an elbow, a cast silicon carbide liner costs less and weighs a fraction of the carbide.
High temperature: the metal binder softens and oxidizes long before silicon carbide or alumina reach their limit. Hot service usually belongs to a ceramic.
Complex shapes: Blasch casts silicon carbide net shape in one piece, where a carbide part would have to be pressed, sintered and ground, or assembled from segments.
The detailed comparison is on silicon carbide vs tungsten carbide. For the densest silicon carbide, see reaction bonded silicon carbide.
Blasch values and uses: Blasch tungsten carbide material page. Cemented carbides, binders and their behavior: ASM Handbook, Volume 7, Powder Metal Technologies and Applications, ASM International, 1998.
Parts where impact and erosion come together.
Flow restrictions that keep their bore in fast, abrasive flow.
Valve trim and components for slurry and abrasive solids.
Linings, bubble caps and tuyeres for reactors with abrasive or corrosive media.
Blasch tungsten carbide parts go to chemical processing, power generation and heavy industrial processing. For non wetting parts in molten aluminum, see calcium silicate and the other oxide grades.
Partly. The carbide grains are ceramic, but the binder is metal, so cemented tungsten carbide sits between a ceramic and a metal.
That depends on velocity, particle size and the medium. In impact service it usually outlasts ceramic; in pure sliding abrasion, dense silicon carbide can match it at lower cost.
High weight, high cost, a binder that limits temperature and corrosion resistance, and limited part size and shape complexity.
Cobalt for abrasion in neutral media, nickel where the fluid is corrosive. A Blasch engineer chooses it with the application.
Send the dimensions, the medium, the velocity and the temperature. A Blasch engineer recommends the material that lasts longest per dollar.
