Tungsten carbide

Product Description

Tungsten carbide is used extensively in mining in top hammer rock drill bits, downhole hammers, roller-cutters, long wall plough chisels, long wall shearer picks, raiseboring reamers, and tunnel boring machines. It is generally utilised as a insert, mounted in a surrounding matrix of steel that forms the substance of the bit. As the tungsten carbide is worn away the softer steel matrix containing it is also worn away, exposing yet more insert.


Tungsten carbide is widely used to make the rotating ball in the tips of ballpoint pens that disperse ink during writing.

Tungsten carbide is a common material used in the manufacture of gauge blocks, used as a system for producing precision lengths in dimensional metrology.

English guitarist Martin Simpson is known to use a custom-made tungsten carbide guitar slide. The hardness, weight, and density of the slide give it superior sustain and volume compared to standard glass, steel, ceramic, or brass slides.

Tungsten carbide has been investigated for its potential use as a catalyst and it has been found to resemble platinum in its catalysis of the production of water from hydrogen and oxygen at room temperature, the reduction of tungsten trioxide by hydrogen in the presence of water, and the isomerisation of 2,*-dimethylpropane to *-methylbutane. It has been proposed as a replacement for the iridium catalyst in hydrazine-powered satellite thruster.