Carbide tooling
Carbide tools— specifically tungsten carbide— are widely used in sheetmetal forming, stamping and fabrication operations. For example, carbide inserts are used in progressive dies( punch and die sets) for sheetmetal. They are typically chosen for high-volume production runs and demanding operations where standard tool steels may wear down too quickly.
Carbide’ s benefits include high wear resistance, reduced galling( a much lower tendency to pick up or weld metal to the tool surface during heavy friction phases) and edge retention( cutting edges stay sharp longer, producing burr-free components over hundreds of thousands of cycles). When materials are hard, tolerances are tight or production speeds are high, carbide tooling can play a critical role in achieving reliable, repeatable results.
Tungsten in focus
Tungsten is a metal with unique properties. It has the highest melting point of any metal, is extremely dense and is indispensable for numerous industrial applications. About 65 percent of tungsten is used to manufacture all kinds of tools. Without tungsten carbide, many modern manufacturing processes would not exist.
At the same time, tungsten components are needed, for example, in CT scanners, power transmission switches and smartphones. Although tungsten occupies a niche market, virtually the entire manufacturing industry and many high-tech applications depend upon it.
About the Plansee Group
With its business units Plansee High- Performance Materials and Ceratizit, as well as its stake in Molymet, the Plansee Group is one of the world’ s leading powder metallurgy companies. The company specialises in molybdenum and tungsten products and covers the entire value chain— from raw material processing to custom tools and components.
The Plansee Group employs approximately 11,000 people, operates 40 production sites worldwide and generated consolidated revenue of 2.25- billion euros in the 2024 / 25 fiscal year.
Image: Rolf Marke.
Tungsten carbide powder( W).
At the same time, there is a growing need for transparent, auditable supply chains: conflict minerals regulations, country-specific restrictions and customer requirements are having an impact all the way down to raw material procurement. All of this explains the shortage, but not the available options for action.
Recycling as a counter-strategy
In this situation, an approach that is often underestimated is gaining traction: tungsten recycling.
“ The potential impact is significant because suitable processes exist and tungsten is technically easy to recover within the circular economy. Nevertheless, around 70 per cent of the tungsten used worldwide does not enter the recycling stream,” highlighted Andreas Lackner.“ In Europe, there is an additional problem: large quantities of tungsten scrap are sold to other countries and flow out of the market. While this may seem attractive in the short term, it weakens the raw material base and security of supply in the long run.”
For tool users, there is a very concrete scope for action. Those who consistently collect carbide scrap are already laying the groundwork for increasing the recovery rate and boosting availability in the region. In practice, simple yet effective measures are what counts: clear container and collection concepts as well as established channels for buyback programmes or circular economy models.
That recycling is viable on an industrial scale is demonstrated by the Plansee Group in its value chain. Approximately 12 per cent of all global tungsten products or raw materials for them originate from the Group; 92 per cent of these come from recycling. This resilience is built on the systematic collection and sorting of tungsten scrap, on thermal-mechanical and chemical recycling processes, and on long-term purchase agreements with tungsten mines( including the Sangdong Mine in South Korea).
The need for carbide tools
For professionals in the tooling industry, carbide is not a topic that needs to be explained from scratch. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a closer look at its role within the overall manufacturing system, because that is
Image: Rolf Marke.
FOCUS ON TOOLING
precisely where the challenges of the current price surge lie.
Carbide tools— from milling cutters and drills to indexable cutting inserts— are the standard in many applications because they open process windows that tools made of steel can only provide in niche applications. In practice, this translates into higher cutting speeds, longer tool life and more consistent reproducibility across batch sizes, shifts and machines.
“ Without carbide, cutting parameters decline, machine times increase and highstrength materials like titanium or nickelbased alloys quickly become uneconomical to machine,” explained Andreas Lackner of Ceratizit.“ At the same time, it becomes more difficult to maintain dimensional accuracy and surface quality consistently; and process capability as well as scrap rates come under pressure. The bottom line is that this affects not only the tool price, but the entire cost calculation: more spindle time, more set-up time, more downtime, more risk.”
Circularity and diversification
The current price increases for carbide tools mark a new dynamic driven by raw material shortages, geopolitical restrictions and growing competition for tungsten. For machining and sheet metal professionals, this means that tool prices can increasingly be explained by raw material flows.
“ Anyone who is currently solely focused on short-term ways to get around the rising cost of tools is missing the point: raw material resilience. Closing loops, diversifying sources, keeping materials within the European system— these are the levers that we can adjust ourselves,” emphasised Andreas Lackner, spokesman for the Ceratizit Executive Board.
“ Recycling converts scrap back into raw material. And in a market that is currently demonstrating how quickly dependencies translate into prices, this is not a minor issue but a matter of securing production,” he concluded. n
www. plansee-group. com
www. ceratizit. com
The Plansee Group headquarters.
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