Leaching behavior of Al, Co and W from the Al-alloying treated WC-Co tool as a new recycling process for WC hard scrap

Abstract

The Al-alloying treated tungsten carbide (WC)-Co tool was subjected to grinding using a jaw crusher and planetary mill followed by three wet chemical treatment steps to establish an effective recycling process for WC scraps, especially those generated as bulky and hard scrap. This alloyed WC tool was readily ground to a powder of 1 mm or less and divided into two portions that were 150 μm in size. The wet chemical treatments enabled us to recover W to 69.44% from the under-sized 150 μm and also obtain WC powders from the over-sized 150 μm with a high purity of 98.9% or more.