Cobalt Chrome and Tungsten: Premium Materials for Advanced Machining Applications

By fusing cobalt and chromium, Co-Cr alloy was first discovered by Elwood Haynes in the early 1900s. CoCr stands for Cobalt Chrome and has features of being very resistant to corrosion, temperature and wear, which is usually used for dental implants, gas turbines and orthopedic implants. Co-Cr alloy was used for medical tool manufacturing in the 20th century. The first Co-Cr prosthetic heart valve was implanted in 1960. Moreover, Co-Cr alloy can be used for manufacturing a lot of artificial joints such as dental partial bridge work, knees and hips.

Advantage

• Co-Cr alloy has features of being very resistant to corrosion, temperature and wear.
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Advantages

• Co-Cr alloy is hard to process.
• Co-Cr alloy costs much.

Tungsten

EA17, EA17M

Tungsten was identified as a new element in 1781 and isolated as a metal in 1783. Tungsten is one of the materials which can bring trouble for you. However, if you need its properties, you will have to deal with it. Tungsten has the highest melting point and therefore is very resistant to heat, which makes Tungsten Carbide used for manufacturing machining cutters. Tungsten is very dense and is comparable to gold and uranium.

Tungsten is hard and very brittle with its pure form, so it’s difficult to process Tungsten. Tungsten is suitable for military purposes due to its hardness and high density and it can also be used for all kinds of cutters, jewelry, vacuum tube filaments and light bulbs.

Advantage

• Tungsten has the highest melting point and high density.
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Disadvantages

• Tungsten is difficult to process.
• Tungsten is very brittle, easy to crack.
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