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 There is no comprehensive comparison of tungsten carbide between and among tungsten carbide suppliers.  A big part of the problem is the huge number of suppliers, grades and trade names.   There are at least 5,000 different grades of tungsten carbide sold under more than 1,500 different trade names by more than 1,500 different companies.  Refer to our Carbide and Advanced Material Index for more information on Carbide Material. 

There is no true standard.  The US "C" designation, The ISO designation and other designations are not necessarily relevant.  Tungsten carbide from two different manufacturers may have identical designation but vary widely in almost every imaginable way including performance.   

C grades

The original concept was to rate tungsten carbides according to the job that they had to do.  If you had a particular job you would specify a "C" grade of tungsten carbide and you could buy from anybody.  This has lead to a situation where a C-7 tungsten carbide can be almost anything as long as it does C-7 style work.   According to Machinery's Handbook it can range from 0 - 75% tungsten carbide, 8 to 80% titanium tungsten carbide, 0 - 10% Cobalt and 0 - 15% Nickel.   The problem is that two C-7 tips from two manufacturers will almost certainly work very differently in two different applications.  

A common misconception is that there is a straight progression from C-1 to C-14 or wherever.  A common view is that each higher grade has less cobalt in the binder and is therefore harder and more likely to break.  Following this line of thought is belief that the higher C number is harder and better for wear resistance.  This is like classifying automobiles by size from a moped to an eighteen-wheel semi.  This is clear and handy but unfortunately it is not true.  

  

C grades classification

C-1 to C-4 are general grades for cast iron, non-ferrous and non-metallic materials

C-1       Roughing                      

C-2       General Purpose

C-3       Finishing

C-4       Precision

Steel and steel alloys - these grades resist pitting and deformation

C-5       Roughing                      

C-6       General Purpose

C-7       Finishing

C-8       Precision

Wear Surface

C-9       No shock

C-10     Light shock

C-11     Heavy shock

If you want to learn more, please visit our website RTP GAUGE.

Impact

C-12     Light

C-13     Medium

C-14     heavy

Miscellaneous

C-15     Light cut, hot flash weld removal

C-15A  Heavy cut, hot flash weld removal

C-16     Rock bits

C-17     Cold header dies

C-18     Wear at elevated temperatures and/or resistance to chemical reactions

C-19     Radioactive shielding, counter balances and kinetic applications
 

 

Every task using tungsten carbide is different.  Northern sawmills know that the cutting varies with the temperature.   Identical knotty pine cuts differently frozen in December than it does warm in July.  Boeing machinists can often tell the difference in different lots of Aluminum that are supposedly identical.  Each and every cutting job needs a different set of factors to be successful.

Tungsten Carbide Grades & Applications

Illustrated below are some examples of the typical applications where Dymet tungsten carbide sintered carbides are used. These by no means represent the complete range of applications covered.

For advice and assistance on applications that are not covered in the chart, our experienced engineers will be happy to help and if you if you require more information on material grade compositions please contact us.

Our products include: Oil & Gas Components, Heading Dyes, Bricks and Roof Tiles, Press Tooling Components, Tooling, Wire and Cable, Circular Saw and Groover Tips and Bespoke Tungsten Carbide Components.

Dymet
Grade ISO
Code Minimum Transverse
RuptureN/mm2 Hardness
Hv30 Density
g/cm3 Material Properties Typical
Applications DF3 K01 15.25 Excellent / Severe Wear &#; Compacting and fine wire dies
&#; Sand blasting nozzles DF100 K01/K05 13.5 Excellent / High Wear &#; Centrifuge Tiles
&#; Post Bushes & Liners, Wear Sleeves
&#; Mould Liners, Nozzles DF6 K10 14.9 Excellent Wear &#; Forming & Compaction Dies
&#; Cutters, Strips Weld Roll Blankets
&#; Turks Head Rolls, Wire Flattening Rolls
&#; Roller End Plates, Workrest Tips
&#; Bar Hammers, Impact & Wear Plates
&#; Punching Dies, Centrifuge Plough Tips
&#; Shearing Knives
&#; Agricultural Plough Tips DM6 K20 14.9 DC7 K30 14.8 DF10 M30 14.5 Good Wear / Light Impact

&#; Forming & Compact Dies

&#; Cutters, Strips, Weld Roll Blanks

&#; Turks Head Rolls, Wire Flatterning Rolls

&#; Roller End Plates, Workrest tips

&#; Bar Hammers, Impact & Wear Plates

&#; Punching Dies, Centrifuge Plough Tips- Shearing Knives

&#; Agricultural Plough Tips

For more tungsten carbide metric gaugeinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

D10 K40 14.5 DC10 14.5 D13 14.2 Good Wear / Medium Impact &#; Die Punches, Guillotine/Shearing Tips
&#; Punches, Slitter & Cut Edge Rings
&#; Brass and Bronze Blanking DF15 14.1 Good Wear / Medium Impact &#; Lamination Dies, Ironing Dies
&#; Scroll & Forming Dies
&#; Forming Blocks
&#; Stamping Punches
&#; Crush Rolls, Stump Grinding Tips D15 14.0 DC16 13.95 D17 13.9 Good Wear / Medium-Heavy Impact &#; Tooling for Spring Tooling, Coiling Points
&#; Heavy Punching Operations
&#; Compacting Tips D20 13.5 Heavy Impact &#; Heavy Impact Blanking, Heading Dies
&#; Metal Forming Rolls
&#; Straightening Dies, Coining Dies D25 925 13.0 Severe Impact / Shock &#; Cold Heading Die Insert & Blanks
&#; Extrusion
&#; Nail Gripper Dies DN6 14.85 Excellent Wear / Corrosion Resistant &#; Choke Valves & Flow Trim Assemblies
&#; Plain Male/Female Bearings, Sleeves
&#; Nozzle, Target Tils, Mechanical Seal Rings DN10 14.5 Good Wear/ Higher Impact than DN6 Corrosion Resistant &#; As for DN6
&#; Can tooling
&#; Battery tooling DS1 11 Steel Machining grades for turning and milling ferrous metals that product long chips DS2 12.4 DS3 200 13.5