Tungsten carbide is an alloy of tungsten and carbon, made by heating tungsten powder with carbon and hydrogen at 1,400 - 1,600°C (2,550 - 2,900°F). The resulting alloy is 2-3 times as rigid as steel and has a compressive strength surpassing all known melted, cast, and forged metals.

Tungsten carbide (chemical formula: WC) is a chemical compound (specifically, a carbide) containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes through sintering for use in industrial machinery, cutting tools, chisels, abrasives, armor ...

The ultra-hard metal composite that landed on the dragon was one of the toughest materials on Earth: tungsten carbide. This compound's history can be traced back to the 1700s when tungsten was first extracted from the ore wolframite by Juan Jose de Elhuyar and his brother Fausto.

Tungsten carbide-cobalt alloys (WC–Cos), which are used for cutting tools, are mainly composed of tungsten carbide and cobalt with minor elements including chromium, tantalum, nickel. Recycling WC–Cos requires a large amount of energy and chemicals for leaching tungsten.

Tungsten carbide's many advantageous qualities, such as low thermal expansion, high specific strength, high thermal conductivity, and dimensional stability, have led to its widespread use as a hard ceramic reinforcement in modern functional applications.

Tungsten Carbide . Tungsten carbide is produced either by bonding one tungsten atom with a single carbon atom (represented by the chemical symbol WC) or two tungsten atoms with a single carbon atom (W2C). It is done by heating tungsten powder with carbon at temperatures of 2550°F to 2900°F (1400°C to 1600°C) in a stream of …

Tungsten carbide is a very dense carbide containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes through a process called sintering for use in industrial machinery, cutting tools, abrasives, armor-piercing shells and jewellery.

Tungsten carbide is not a true alloy, but a ceramic-like compound made by using the sintering process where carbon black is added to tungsten powder and shaped to produce an extremely hard and brittle cement once cooled.

Tungsten carbide, an important member of the class of inorganic compounds of carbon, used alone or with 6 to 20 percent of other metals to impart hardness to cast iron, cutting edges of saws and drills, and penetrating cores of armour-piercing projectiles.

On hard tungsten-carbide alloys, the most common coatings consist of titanium carbide TiC and nitride TiN, characterized by high lattice binding energy and high melting point. If such coatings are applied to hard-alloy tools, the frictional coefficient is reduced by a factor of 1.5–2.0 when cutting steel.