It is no secret that there is money to be made from selling and recycling certain types of metal. One of those valuable metals just happens to be tungsten carbide. However, it is impossible to know that you are getting the most out of your metal if you are not aware of the amount of money you should expect to receive. Therefore, before you contact a scrap specialist, you would do well to first have an understanding of the worth and price of tungsten carbide.
When equal parts of carbon and tungsten are combined in powder form and pressed together, it creates one of the strongest materials known to man. The gray powder that results is known as tungsten carbide.
While technically carbide and tungsten carbide are not the same thing, many industrial workers will often refer to tungsten carbide as just carbide. On the contrary, those in the jewelry industry is known as just Tungsten.
So what is the Cost?
There is no single answer to this question because there are so many different factors that contribute to the price on any tungsten product. However, you can still take the time to understand some of the variables that affect the price of tungsten carbide.
The first thing that you will need to know about are market considerations. Start by finding out the going rate for tungsten powder, tungsten ore and ammonium paratungstate, also known as APT. For a number of years, in order to capture market share, China kept down the market prices. However, many different factors, such as the country’s increasing internal requisite for tungsten, led to substantial rises in pricing that began as long ago as 2004. You should also note that the standard pricing unit for trading tungsten is the metric ton unit, or mtu.
The next thing to consider is the form of tungsten. Tungsten rod, tungsten wire, tungsten plate, tungsten powder and tungsten chemicals are all going to be priced differently. The price depends on the cost of the raw material as well as the amount of work that goes into creating a finished product.
There are two different types of carbide scrap, which are dirty scrap and clean scrap. The solid carbides, such as drill bits, reamers and end mills would be considered clean scrap. Scrap that has braze allow in it, such as the carbide saw tips removed from a saw, would be considered dirty scrap. This too will make a difference in the price of tungsten carbide.