Blast Nozzles form Tungsten Carbide
(Hard metal, chemical formula WC)
Tungsten carbide is another popular material for blast nozzles due to its hardness.
It achieves a maximum of 25% of the wear resistance of boron carbide, but has the advantage of being much tougher and therefore more resistant to fracture than SiC and B4C.
For this reason, tungsten carbide is often used when blasting with coarse-grained metallic abrasives or when high mechanical stresses are encountered. Tungsten carbide is a non-toxic ceramic and is an interstitial compound of carbon and tungsten. The hardness of tungsten carbide is close to that of diamond, it is extremely wear resistant and can withstand high temperatures - the melting point of tungsten carbide is 2785 degrees Celsius.
Tungsten carbide is the most suitable material for blast nozzles that cannot be made from boron carbide due to their shape, but still require high abrasion resistance.
Tungsten carbide is used in particular for the following blasting media
- Glass beads
- Steel shot
- Cast steel
- hilled cast iron
- Ceramics
The main advantage of tungsten carbide over extremely hard materials such as SiC and B4C is the toughness (impact resistance) of the material and is therefore the preferred choice for blasting with large grain steel abrasives.