Nano, ultrafine, and submicron cemented carbide grades

Cemented carbide grades with binder content in the range of 3 to 10 wt% and grain sizes below 1 μm have the highest hardness and compressive strengths, combined with exceptionally high wear resistance and high reliability against breakage. These grades are used in a wide range of wear parts applications and in cutting tools and carbide drill bits designed for metallic and nonmetallic machining for which a combination of high strength, high wear resistance, and sharp cutting edges are essential.

Submicron grades

Submicron grades, an example:

The leader in submicron cemented carbides

Hyperion Materials & Technologies is a long-standing leader in submicron cemented carbide grades. This is best exemplified by our grade H10F, which has been the leading grade for a wide range of cutting applications such as end milling, drilling (i.e., carbide drill bits), and band sawing.

Grade H10F is also an example of Hyperion’s philosophy of continuous improvement. Raw materials, powder processing, and sintering conditions have been developed to further improve grade H10F’s leading performance.

Sharpness and toughness

Because the performance of a cutting edge depends considerably on these properties, Hyperion has designed a new carbide rotary cutter concept with a grade tailored to fulfill the specific requirements. In order to get sharp cutting edges after grinding and no chips during use, a controlled fine grain size of the hard phase was developed. The binder (composition and amount) was also optimized to give the excellent micro toughness required for these applications.

The combination of the hard phase and binder phase results in a grade with the appropriate properties. This primarily entails high hardness (to reduce the wear of the cutting edge), high micro toughness (to maintain edge-line integrity and perfect cutting), very high stiffness (to reduce the bending of the cutter and flattening of the cutting edge), and good thermal conductivity (to reduce temperatures during processing).