Tungsten Carbide Buttons & Inserts

Volgaburmash operates a fully integrated tungsten-carbide facility that takes raw material all the way from tungsten ore to finished, inspection-ready components. Because powder synthesis, pressing, sintering and finishing all happen under one roof, the same metallurgical standards that go into Volgaburmash drill-bit inserts also go into every button, plate and rod supplied to India. That vertical control is what lets the plant guarantee consistent grade chemistry and repeatable mechanical properties batch after batch.

The production route covers the complete powder-metallurgy chain: tungsten-carbide powder production with controlled particle size, wet-ball milling of carbide and cobalt, spray drying to free-flowing granulate, isostatic and mechanical pressing to near-net shape, vacuum sintering to full density, and CNC grinding to final tolerances. Each stage is parameterized so that grain size and cobalt distribution stay within tight windows, which is exactly what determines how an insert behaves under impact and abrasion in the field.

Several proprietary grades are produced from this line. High-cobalt grades at 12–16% Co deliver the toughness needed for impact-heavy mining and blast-hole work, including the mining and blast-hole bits used across India's hard-rock operations. Low-cobalt grades at 6–8% Co are tuned for abrasion-resistant wear parts where edge retention matters more than impact resistance, while medium grades cover general drill-bit inserts and balanced wear applications. Selecting the right grade — rather than defaulting to one — is the difference between premature chipping and a full service life, which is why VBM helps operators match grade to formation, such as the blast-hole carbide buttons for Coal India programs.

Quality control runs in parallel with production rather than as a final gate. Every batch is checked for density, HRA hardness and magnetic coercivity — the coercivity reading being a sensitive proxy for grain size — alongside cobalt content verification and full dimensional inspection. Together these checks confirm that the WC-Co microstructure on the shop floor matches the grade specification on paper, so the carbide that reaches an Indian drill string, mining tool or wire-drawing shop performs exactly as engineered.