**Author details**

118 Tungsten Carbide – Processing and Applications

conditions.

enabling desired technological effects.

**Figure 21.** The schemes of manufacturing processes of various products made of tungsten carbide: a)

The application of ductile cutting to production of cutting inserts (Figure 21a) shortens manufacturing process by the elimination of one partial process (e.g. polishing). However ductile cutting occurs only in the range of extremely low values of depths of cut and feeds. Therefore, this kind of process can be achieved only on very rigid and ultraprecision machine tools, what is substantial limitation of this method. Ultraprecision machine tools can be also applied to grinding of very accurate spherical surfaces. This process also shortens manufacturing process by the elimination of polishing or lapping (Figure 21b). In case of tungsten carbide products obtained by DLD (direct laser deposition) technology (Figure 21c), grinding or cutting (e.g. milling, turning) can be applied as the finishing process. However cutting enables also the shaping of manufactured part, by the possibility of higher cutting conditions application in comparison to grinding. Nevertheless, during cutting of tungsten carbide, intense tool wear growth can occur, and thus this process requires the selection of appropriate cutting

Deliberations presented in this chapter reveal, that efficient machining process of tungsten carbide parts is feasible, however it requires the knowledge about the physical effects of the process, as well as appropriate selection of machining method and cutting conditions,

cutting insert, b) spherical surface, c) end product made by DLD technology

Paweł Twardowski and Szymon Wojciechowski *Poznan University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Poznan, Poland* 
