Tungsten carbide is a strong and wear-resistant compound made of tungsten and carbon. It is used in industrial machinery, tools, abrasives, and men’s jewelry. It has a high melting point and is produced in different grades for various applications. It is also used in military armor-piercing munitions and sporting goods. Carbide wedding bands contain binders, usually metals, and can be removed in emergency situations.
Tungsten carbide is an inorganic chemical compound that contains equal numbers of tungsten and carbon atoms. It is sometimes colloquially referred to simply as “carbide”. In its most basic form, it’s a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and molded into shapes for use in industrial machinery, tools, abrasives, and men’s jewelry.
The remarkable and rare combination of physical properties possessed by tungsten carbide make it useful for a variety of applications. It is extremely strong and wear resistant. There are only a few materials on earth that can be used to cut or engrave it, and industrial diamond abrasives are one of them. Its tensile strength is very high, but as a result it is brittle at high pressures. The melting point is also very high, at 5,200°F (2,870°C). To boil, it must be heated much higher, to 10,382°F (6,000°C).
This compound can be produced by reacting tungsten and carbon at temperatures ranging from about 2.552 to 3.632°C from about 1.400 to 2.000°F. It is then often made into mills and cutting tools for industrial use, which can withstand heavy use and high temperatures. Military organizations also use it in armor-piercing munitions as an alternative to depleted uranium due to its very high density and level of hardness. Some sporting goods are made stronger and more durable with the addition of carbide. Trekking poles used by hikers, for example, use carbide tips to gain traction on hard or rocky surfaces.
Several common consumer goods contain tungsten carbide, including razor blades and the rotary tips of ballpoint pens. It has also become increasingly common to use it in men’s wedding rings. When used this way, the straps have a dark hue that can be polished to a mirror-like shine. Due to the hardness of the material, these rings will remain shiny and scratch free for decades.
Carbide wedding bands also contain other materials known as binders, usually metals such as nickel and cobalt. Cobalt has been known to cause allergic reactions on the skin of the wearer, so many manufacturers are turning to substitute materials. Despite the common misconception that carbide rings cannot be removed in emergency situations, jeweler’s saws used in emergency rooms and jewelry stores can cut through any material a ring might be made of.
It’s important to note that tungsten carbide is produced in nearly two dozen different grades that have different properties, depending on what each is going to be used for. They are almost all variations of a few parameters: particle size, hardness and degree of use of a binder. Generally, the higher the percentage of the finished product that is composed of alloying materials such as nickel, the softer it will be and the more it will wear out. The size of the original powder grains makes slightly less of a difference, but can affect how much shock the product will be able to withstand.
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