Tantalum carbide (TaC), niobium carbide (NbC) and their mixed carbides (Ta,Nb)C raise the performance of carbide cutting tools, markedly improving the oxidation resistance, hot hardness, thermal resistance and wear resistance of tools for machining steel.
Tantalum-niobium carbides are used mainly at 2–8% in hardmetals for steel machining (ISO P application group), and at about 0.2–2% as grain growth inhibitors in tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) hardmetals.
Properties
HC Starck’s tantalum, niobium and tantalum-niobium carbides have a particularly narrow grain size distribution and very low impurity levels. Galtek Kimya supplies TaC, NbC and TaNbC powders in HGS grades with a narrow, uniform grain size distribution of 0.7–1.3 µm.
TaC · NbC
- Type
- Tantalum carbide, niobium carbide
- Grain size (HGS)
- 0.7–1.3 µm
(Ta,Nb)C
- Ratios
- 90/10, 80/20, 75/25, 70/30, 67/33, 60/40, 50/50
- Grain size (HGS)
- 0.7–1.3 µm
Applications
- Cutting tools
- Additive to hardmetals for steel machining; grain growth inhibitor in hardmetals
- Other
- Semi-finished products, cermets, roll rings