Applications

Tungsten carbide balls are used where extreme hardness and wear resistance is required; in such applications as bearings, ball screws, valves and flowmeters. They are also used for coining and as pivots, detents and tips for gages and tracers. Decimal-inch sized tungsten carbide balls are widely used for ballizing (below) or measuring hole sizes (see Inspection Products data sheet). They are also used for inspection tools, comparative checking and gaging.

Features

Tungsten carbide itself is practically inert; any attack is usually on the binder. Since other materials are less expensive, the selection of tungsten carbide solely for corrosion resistance is usually not justified. In severely corrosive conditions, carbides with more resistant binder formulation can be supplied.

Ballizing
Low-cost, high-speed hole sizing and Finishing

Ballizing is a fast low-cost process for sizing and finishing tubing and holes in metal. Pressing a slightly oversized tungsten carbide ball through the unfinished hole brings the hole up to desired size in seconds. The resulting surface finish is excellent and both size and finish results are very consistent.