What is a Carbide Cutting Tool?

Carbide cutting tools are utilized by producers to machine and shape a variety of tools, goods and prototypes from metal. Technically speaking, a cutting tool is any tool that is utilized to eliminate material from a workpiece (an unformed block of material) by means of shear deformation. In production, carbide cutting tools are a important ingredient of the forming and machining of metal tools, fasteners and molds, as they provide the cutting edge for machining lathes and equipment. Carbide cutting tools are used to simply because carbide provides durability, heat and chemical resistance essential to cut hard metal supplies like steel and iron.

Cutting Tool Utilizes & Purposes

In order for manufacturers to mass produce consumer products, they want a variety of precisely shaped metal tools, molds, castings and fasteners. Metal molds and castings for injection or blow molded plastic goods; cutting tools for machining or shaping plastic or wood; specialty metal fasteners such as screws, nuts and bolds; these manufacturing tools are typically machined from metal workpieces on lathes or CNC machines. Carbide cutting tools are utilized as the "blade" of these lathes and forming machines.

Inserts & Replaceable Tool Tips

Rather than creating a whole tool from carbide, which is costly and intensely brittle, producers often supply their cutting machines with replaceable carbide tool tips. These tips, or inserts, can be easily changed when they have worn down, conserving producers from the time and expense of removing and sharpening entire carbide tools. In many cases, carbide tool tips are "indexable", meaning they could be turned or flipped to offer a new, fresh cutting edge. Indexable carbide inserts enable producers to obtain more cutting time from each insert, substantially cutting material costs.

Why Carbide?

For one material to cut another, the cutting tool should be harder than the material being cut. For this reason, cutting tools utilized to shape metal workpieces must be harder than metal and capable of withstanding the high friction and heat that results from high speed machining. Carbide tool tips are manufactured from a compound of carbon and tungsten, also referred to as cemented carbide or tungsten carbide. Tungsten carbide, even though fairly brittle, is harder than most metals, however its chemical properties are just as essential. Carbide is considered a "stable" material; it isn't chemically changed by heat, as steel is, which allows tungsten carbide inserts and tool tips to withstand high speed metal machining for long periods of time.