Tungsten carbide grades & properties.
Every Carbide India grade is defined by its tungsten carbide grain — medium, coarse or extra fine — and its cobalt content, from 6% to 25%. Explore each grade's density, hardness and transverse rupture strength, and the products it's used in.
- 09
- Carbide grades
- 04
- Tungsten copper grades
- 6–25%
- Cobalt range
- 82.5–91
- Hardness, HRA
- 3,250
- Max TRS, N/mm²
01 — Grade explorer
Pick a grade. See what it's made for.
Properties, wear and impact ranking, and the product families that use it — one grade at a time.
CIW · medium grain
CID · coarse · CIF · extra fine
Grade
CIW06
- Medium grain
- 6% cobalt
High wear resistance.
Hardness, HRA
89.5
TRS min, N/mm²
2,400
Density, g/cm³
14.90–15.00
02 — Grade chart
Every grade, side by side.
WC–Co grades from our own tungsten powder. Representative published values — ask for the values for your batch.
| Grade | WC grain | Cobalt % | Hardness (HRA) | Density (g/cm³) | TRS min (N/mm²) | Typical application |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIW06 | Medium | 6 | 89.5 | 14.90–15.00 | 2,400 | High wear resistance |
| CIW08 | Medium | 8 | 88.5 | 14.68–14.78 | 2,500 | Wear resistance, wire drawing dies |
| CID08 | Coarse | 8 | 88 | 14.70–14.80 | 2,550 | Mining, rock drilling and boring |
| CID10 | Coarse | 9.5 | 87 | 14.50–14.60 | 2,600 | Mining, rock drilling and boring, powder compaction tooling |
| CID14 | Coarse | 14 | 86 | 14.05–14.20 | 2,800 | Metal forming — deep, bar, tube and can drawing |
| CID25 | Coarse | 25 | 82.5 | 13.06–13.18 | 2,650 | High-impact parts like heading dies |
| CIF06 | Extra fine | 6 | 91 | 14.88–15.00 | 3,100 | Metal cutting, drawing plugs, shot-blasting nozzles, asbestos sheet cutting |
| CIF10 | Extra fine | 10 | 90 | 14.45–14.55 | 3,250 | Plastic granule cutting, textile scissors and cutters |
| CIK20 | — | — | 89.8 | 14.75 | 2,000 | Burr blanks, broach cutters, cast iron and general-purpose machining |
03 — Two levers
Impact or wear — every grade is a trade.
Grain size and cobalt content move a grade along one line. Our published ranks show exactly where each grade sits.
LV/01
Grain size
Extra-fine grains pack tightly for maximum hardness and a sharp, wear-resistant edge. Coarse grains give cracks a longer path — more toughness, less hardness.
LV/02
Cobalt content
The cobalt binder is the tough phase. At 6% the grade is hard and wear-resistant; by 25% it absorbs heavy impact, as in heading dies.
LV/03
Start from the failure
Edges wearing smooth? Move harder. Chipping or cracking? Move tougher. The failure mode tells you which way along the line to go.
04 — Reading guide
How to read a carbide grade chart.
Five columns, and what each one tells you before you specify a grade.
| Column | What it measures | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Grain | The size class of the tungsten carbide grains | Finer grain gives a harder, sharper-holding edge; coarser grain resists cracking under impact. |
| Cobalt % | How much metal binder holds the grains together | More cobalt means more toughness and less hardness. It's the main lever between wear life and impact life. |
| Hardness (HRA) | Resistance to indentation — the headline wear figure | Compare grades on the same scale: HRA and Vickers (HV) numbers aren't interchangeable. |
| Density (g/cm³) | Mass per volume — a check on composition and full sintering | A batch reading below the grade's range points to porosity or the wrong binder content. |
| TRS (N/mm²) | The bending stress a test bar survives before breaking | Toughness's counterpart to hardness. For parts that take shock, read TRS before hardness. |
General cemented-carbide practice. More in our guide to grain size and cobalt.
05 — Composition
Every 10% of tungsten is a trade.
Add tungsten and the part gets harder, denser and more resistant to arc erosion. Add copper and it conducts better. Four grades, from W60 to W80, sit along that line.
← More copper: conducts
More tungsten: endures →
T-60
W60 / Cu40
T-70
W70 / Cu30
T-75
W75 / Cu25
T-80
W80 / Cu20
Conductivity
% IACS
40–50
38–45
35–42
30–38
Hardness
HV30
130–175
150–210
180–230
210–270
Density
g/cm³
13.0–13.7
13.8–14.6
14.6–15.0
14.8–15.6
Published ranges · conductivity relative to 100% IACS = 0.58001 /Ω·cm
06 — Specialist grades
Grades built for one job.
SP/01
Mining grade series
A dedicated series from 6% to 14% cobalt for mining buttons and inserts — from wear-resistant CIW 06 to impact-tough CIH 14.
Mining inserts & buttonsSP/02
Nickel-bound carbide
WC with a 10% nickel binder for choke beans — hardness against sand-laden flow, with the corrosion resistance oil and gas service needs.
Choke beans, stems & seatsMore on choosing: grain size & cobalt — how to choose a grade. New to the material? Read what tungsten carbide is.
07 — Questions
Grade questions.
Q/01How do I choose a tungsten carbide grade?
Two levers define a grade: tungsten carbide grain size and cobalt binder content. Finer grain and less cobalt make carbide harder and more wear-resistant; coarser grain and more cobalt make it tougher against impact. In our chart, extra-fine CIF06 (6% cobalt, 91 HRA) sits at the wear end and coarse CID25 (25% cobalt, 82.5 HRA) at the impact end. Start from how your part fails today.
Q/02Which tungsten carbide grade is used for mining and rock drilling?
CID08 and CID10 — coarse-grain grades with 8% and 9.5% cobalt — are our grades for mining, rock drilling and boring. For mining buttons we also run a dedicated mining series from 6% to 14% cobalt.
Q/03Which grade is used for heading dies and wire drawing dies?
CID25 (25% cobalt) for high-impact parts like heading dies, CID14 for deep, bar, tube and can drawing, and CIW08 for wire drawing dies.
Q/04Which grade is used for plastic granulator knives?
CIF10, an extra-fine grade with 10% cobalt and 90 HRA, for plastic granule cutting and for textile scissors and cutters.
Q/05What does TRS mean on a carbide grade chart?
TRS is transverse rupture strength — the bending stress a standard test bar withstands before it breaks, in N/mm². Higher TRS means more resistance to breaking; it is the toughness counterpart to hardness.
RFQ — 24 h engineering response
Send us your
hardest problem.
Share a drawing, a failing part, or a duty cycle. Our application engineers reply within 24 hours with DFM feedback, a grade recommendation, and a technical quote.
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