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Tungsten Carbide Trivia — provided solely as a diversion

Tungsten is one of the densest elements. Pure tungsten is slightly heavier than gold with a specific gravity greater than 19. It has the highest melting point of all elements, 6192 °F and the highest tensile strength at high temperatures. Recovery of tungsten is what makes scrap carbide valuable.

Tungsten is used in super alloys for the aerospace and other high tech industries, e.g. in the turbines of rockets and jet engines; it is the filament in all incandescent light bulbs and used in most fluorescents; it is used in armor plate and armor piercing ammunition; and the cutting tools, pictured above, that are used to machine products from automotive engine blocks to dental drills. Tungsten carbide tooling is critical to mining and drilling as well as road construction. About 65% of USA tungsten consumption is used in the manufacture of new tungsten carbide.

In the classic 1946 Film Noir, Gilda the bad guy is going to run the world by establishing a monopoly in tungsten. His theory was that one critical material could provide a lot of leverage, kind of like bending someone’s little finger backwards.

China has just under 60% of the world’s known tungsten reserves, Russia has 8% and Canada 12%  the USA and South America 4% each. In 2007 China produced 85% of the mined tungsten, world wide.

According to the International Tungsten Industry Association, at the current rate of consumption these reserves will last about 140 years.  70% of the world’s reserves are Scheelite ore and 30% are Wolframite.

In 2008, tungsten recycling from scrap accounted for 35% of tungsten consumption by USA processors and end users, 2007 was 31%.

China is the world’s largest tungsten consumer. In 2005, the Chinese Government, in order to conserve its resources and meet increasing domestic demand, limited tungsten production and exports and increased tungsten imports. Reduced supply, increased demand, prices rose and stayed up, until October 2008, when the price of carbide dropped like everything else. When the fortunes of the world’s manufacturing sectors rebound, carbide prices should recover.

Scrap carbide must be clean and free of foreign material and separated from any high speed steel.

Scrap carbide and hss recycling—how it works:

Day 0:  Phone for bid; confirmed by email;

            price guaranteed 1 week.

            Please do not send scrap carbide or high speed steel

            without phoning first.

Day 1:  You send the old carbide and/or HSS.

            ShipPost or ShipTruck

Day 2:  In transit

Day 5:  Weighed on certified-for-trade scales, which are

            checked daily with certified weights. Check issued.

Day 7:  You receive the check in the mail.

Inserts, round tools, dies, sludge; if it’s scrap carbide or hss for recycling, we buy it

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