Trends in Cemented Carbide Ball Teeth
Release date:
2021-12-01
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Rock-drilling carbide ball teeth are predominantly used in ball-tooth drill bits or down-the-hole drills. Specifically, for tunneling, underground mining, and open-pit quarry operations, it is essential to employ ball-tooth drill bits designed for high-power hydraulic rock drills, enabling efficient and rapid excavation. In China, research and development of carbide ball-tooth drill bits gained significant attention in the late 1980s. Since then, from the 1990s to the present day, domestically produced carbide ball-tooth drill bits have shown tremendous potential for growth—both in terms of quantity and quality. As a result, large-scale manufacturers of carbide ball-tooth drill bits have gradually emerged in regions such as Lianhuashan and Sanshan.
Additionally, as down-the-hole drills evolve toward multi-functionality, the demand for corresponding carbide ball teeth is also expected to rise accordingly. With foreign companies increasingly entering the Chinese market, the share of high-efficiency down-the-hole drills continues to grow year by year. At the same time, new equipment and technologies are steadily advancing, driving ever-higher requirements for cemented carbide ball teeth. Today, cemented carbide ball teeth are already showing several emerging trends.
I. Research on Gradient-Structured Alloys Gradient-structured alloys, also known as multiphase or multi-structure alloys, are characterized by their exceptionally high toughness and outstanding wear resistance. The underlying principle involves using low-carbon alloys and fabricating them via vacuum sintering to produce alloys containing the η phase. Subsequently, these alloys are treated in a carburizing atmosphere, which alters the distribution of the bonding phase, thereby optimizing the content of the bonding phase in different regions of the alloy. According to relevant literature and data, gradient cemented carbide ball teeth drill bits exhibit a service life that is approximately 40% to 60% longer than standard cemented carbide drill bits, while their wear resistance can be improved by 40% to 90%.
II. Non-Uniform Structured Alloys Based on major applications both domestically and internationally, most alloy structures are uniform in nature; however, a small fraction still consists of typical non-uniform structured alloys. These non-uniform alloys can be categorized into two types: one is made by combining WC particles of varying sizes, while the other involves separately granulating high-cobalt and low-cobalt alloys before blending them together to form a non-uniform structure. Non-uniform structured alloys exhibit exceptionally high toughness and wear resistance, yet both domestic and international developments of these alloys remain in the research and gradual implementation phases.
III. Alloy with Trace Additions of TaC There are two methods for incorporating trace amounts of TaC into ball-tooth alloys: one involves adding Ta, W, and C in solid form, while the other uses pure TaC as a single-element additive. Both approaches yield essentially equivalent results. The addition of微量TaC helps refine the composition of the alloy’s bonding phase and enhances the microstructure at grain boundaries, thereby improving the alloy’s wear resistance as well as its ability to withstand thermal shock and thermal deformation.
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