Tungsten Carbide: Its Amazing, Useful Properties

Discovered in 1781 by chemical researcher and apothecary Carl William Scheele, tungsten carbide did not gain notoriety until the 1920s, when Osram, a German electrical bulb company, rediscovered its practical applications while searching for alternatives to expensive diamond-drawing dyes (ITIA).

According to the International Tungsten Industry Association, annual world tungsten carbide consumption has jumped from a mere ten tons per year in thge 1930s to 30,000 tons a year in recent years. In a rapidly developing technological world, tungsten carbide's amazing properties of strength and resistance combined with its relative low cost compared to materials previously used to perform work done by tungsten carbide, this practical and aesthetic metal is serving new purposes every day but without the spotlight it deserves.

Tungsten Carbide is rated at a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale with diamonds at 10, and only ultrahard fullerite and newly created aggregated diamond nanorods harder than diamonds. While aggregated diamond nanorods are thought to be the strongest material in the world yet known to man, tungsten carbide was until the discovery of nanorods in 2005 the strongest metal known to man.