Under What Circumstances Can Cermet Replace Cemented Carbide?

Metal ceramics (Cermet) are not a universal substitute for hard alloys (WC-Co). Their core advantages lie in high hardness, high red hardness, low friction coefficient, and excellent chemical stability. Whether they can replace hard alloys depends on specific working conditions. In the following scenarios, using metal ceramics instead of hard alloys usually leads to better processing results or economic benefits:

Recommended alternative application scenarios

Precision and semi-precision machining of steel and cast iron

Conditions: 

Uniform machining allowance, continuous or slightly intermittent cutting, and no large impact loads.

Advantages:

 Metal ceramics have a low affinity to steel and strong anti-moon groove wear ability, enabling extremely high surface finish (down to Ra0.4μm or below), and are less prone to chip formation. Under high-speed cutting (v>200m/min), their tool life is typically 2-5 times that of hard alloys.

High-speed Machining

Conditions: 

High cutting speed, resulting in tool tip temperatures exceeding 800℃.

Advantages: 

The red hardness (high temperature hardness retention rate) of metal ceramics is far superior to that of hard alloys. When hard alloys rapidly wear due to high temperatures, metal ceramics can still remain sharp, suitable for dry cutting or micro-lubrication (MQL) high-speed processing.

Seeking "tool substitution for grinding" or high dimensional accuracy

Conditions: 

Strict requirements for dimensional tolerance and shape tolerance of the workpiece.

Advantages:

 Metal ceramics have excellent wear resistance, with minimal tool size wear in long cutting depths or long strokes, maintaining processing dimension stability for a long time, and reducing tool change frequency.

Cost-sensitive and non-heavy-load impact scenarios

Conditions:

Fluctuations in the price of hard alloy raw materials (tungsten, cobalt) are significant, and the processing conditions allow for it.

Advantages: 

The main component of metal ceramics is titanium-based (TiC/TiN), without the scarce tungsten-cobalt resources. It has certain advantages in raw material cost control and a long service life, with potentially lower single-piece processing costs overall.

In conclusion, if your processing task involves continuous, high-speed, and fine processing of steel or cast iron, and the machine tool has good rigidity and no vibration, then boldly replace the hard alloy with metal ceramic. You will achieve a longer service life and better surface quality.