Cemented carbide microstructures: a review

Cemented carbides cover a wide range of applications in many relevant industries, i.e. as cutting tools (turning, milling, drilling) for machining of metal components in the automotive and/or aerospace industry, as components of drill bits or road headers in the rock tools and mining area or as wear parts in wire drawing dies or punch tools. In this review selected cemented carbide and cermet microstructures are presented. The focus is on microstructures, both those that are already established in the cemented carbide industry and those which have drawn scientific attention due to new potential applications. Cemented carbides are here divided in four groups based on microstructure and chemistry: WC morphology and chemistry, cubic carbide containing cemented carbide and cermets, functionally graded cemented carbides, and binder design of cemented carbides. Furthermore, this review covers some historical background that motivated the microstructure design as well as the status of each class of materials nowadays. The paper aims at categorising cemented carbides in a structured way and to serve as an introduction to cemented carbide microstructures for engineers, researchers and scientists.