Top 5 Benefits of Using Green Carbide for Your Cutting Tools
Cutting tools are vital for many sectors, such as metalworking, woodworking, mining, and construction. However, traditional cutting tools made of tungsten carbide and cobalt have some drawbacks, such as high environmental impact, low performance, and high costs. That’s why more and more cutting tool makers and users are switching to green carbide, a new and innovative material that offers many advantages over conventional carbide.
In this article, we will explore the top five reasons why you should choose green carbide for your cutting tools.
Original public domain image from Flickr
What is Green Carbide and How is it Made?
Green carbide is a type of cemented carbide that consists of over 99% recycled carbide material. Unlike conventional carbide, which is made from mined ore, green carbide is produced from old milling cutters, drills, and solid carbide tools that are collected and processed by recycling companies.
The recycled carbide is then mixed with a small amount of binder and pressed into rods, blanks, or inserts. The green carbide products are then heated at high temperatures to achieve the desired hardness and strength.
How Green Carbide Reduces the Environmental Impact of Cutting Tools
One of the main reasons why you should choose green carbide is that it reduces the environmental impact of cutting tools by conserving natural resources and lowering carbon emissions. Extracting tungsten and cobalt from ore is very costly and energy-intensive, requiring 227 tonnes of ore to obtain one tonne of tungsten. Moreover, mining activities can cause land degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss. By using recycled carbide, green carbide eliminates the need for mining and saves up to 70% of energy and 40% of CO2 emissions compared to conventional carbide. Green carbide also reduces waste generation and landfill disposal, as it extends the life cycle of carbide tools and enables their reuse.
How Green Carbide Improves the Performance and Lifespan of Cutting Tools
Another reason why you should choose green carbide is that it improves the performance and lifespan of cutting tools by enhancing their wear resistance, toughness, and reliability. Green carbide has a fine-grained microstructure that provides a high hardness and strength, as well as a low coefficient of friction and thermal expansion. These properties enable green carbide to withstand high temperatures, pressures, and abrasion, as well as to resist chipping, cracking, and deformation.
As a result, green carbide cutting tools can achieve higher cutting speeds, feeds, and depths, as well as longer tool life and better surface finish, than conventional carbide tools. Green carbide is especially suitable for machining hard-to-cut materials, such as stainless steel, titanium, and superalloys.
How Green Carbide Saves Costs and Increases Productivity
A third reason why you should choose green carbide is that it saves costs and increases productivity by reducing tool consumption, downtime, and maintenance. Green carbide cutting tools have a lower price than conventional carbide tools, as they use less raw materials and energy in their production. Moreover, green carbide cutting tools have a longer service life and require less frequent tool changes, which reduces tool inventory and replacement costs.
Furthermore, green carbide-cutting tools improve the efficiency and quality of the machining process, which reduces scrap rates, rework costs, and inspection time. By using green carbide cutting tools, you can achieve significant savings in terms of material, labour, and overhead costs, as well as higher output and profitability.
How to Pick and Use Green Carbide Cutting Tools for Your Projects
The final reason why you should pick green carbide is that it gives you a lot of choices and possibilities for your cutting tool needs. Green carbide comes in different shapes, sizes, and grades, depending on the kind of cutting tool and the material to be machined. For example, you can pick from green carbide rods, blanks, or inserts, as well as from different geometries, coatings, and edge preparations. You can also use green carbide for various cutting operations, such as milling, drilling, turning, threading, and grooving. To pick and use green carbide cutting tools for your projects, you should consider the following factors:
- The material properties and machinability of the workpiece, such as hardness, toughness, ductility, and heat resistance.
- The cutting parameters and conditions, such as cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut, coolant, and tool wear.
- The cutting tool design and configuration, such as shape, size, grade, coating, and edge preparation.
- The cutting tool performance and lifespan, such as cutting force, power consumption, surface finish, tool life, and reliability. By choosing and using green carbide cutting tools that match your requirements and expectations, you can optimise your machining process and achieve the best results.
Green carbide is a new and innovative material that offers many benefits over conventional carbide for cutting tools. Green carbide reduces the environmental impact of cutting tools by conserving natural resources and lowering carbon emissions. Green carbide improves the performance and lifespan of cutting tools by enhancing their wear resistance, toughness, and reliability. Green carbide saves costs and increases productivity by reducing tool consumption, downtime, and maintenance.
Green carbide offers a wide range of options and applications for your cutting tool needs. By using green carbide for your cutting tools, you can enjoy a sustainable, efficient, and profitable machining process. If you are looking for a reliable supplier of green carbide-cutting tools, you can visit milotools.co.uk, where you can find high-quality products.