The cutting edge applied to tungsten alloy materials has to be sharp and high-strength. This is because tungsten alloys with Ni/Fe or Ni/CU binder are sintered by powder metallurgy. A series of forging and heating treatments help to strengthen the tungsten alloy product while also helping increase its density. Therefore, tungsten alloy would be very difficult to cut due to its high density and hardness. Typically, the tensile strength of tungsten heavy alloy is 750 MPa while the hardness is more than HRC 32.
Thermal conductivity is another concern when considering the performance of cutting tungsten alloy materials. Tungsten alloy has a lower thermal conductivity than pure tungsten metal. Therefore, the pieces that are cut off can often resemble small granular chips, especially under high cutting temperatures. In addition, high cutting temperatures might cause metal nodules and knots. In order to prevent these issues from happening, the cutting blades or wheels have to be made up of high-thermally conductive, high-strength and ductile materials. To that end, Carbide tungsten based cutting tools such as YDl5，YMo51 are strongly recommended to use.
CHEMETAL USA is a leading molybdenum supplier and manufacturer in worldwide. To learn more information about tungsten rod, please check our tungsten alloy page.