Tungsten carbide is tungsten carbide grains in a cobalt matrix. When you test tungsten carbide hardness you are mostly testing the amount of cobalt in it.  You are also testing grain size to a certain extent as well as testing how well the carbide is made.

Carbide rockwell hardnesschart

However we now see carbide with a lower transverse rupture strength that is actually tougher and carbide with a higher transverse rupture strength.

SiliconCarbide hardnessHRC

The official way to test carbide hardness is with a Rockwell tester or similar but nobody even pretends that this way is particularly accurate.

“I never thought anything like this could happen, this is crazy. It’s not like you can go to a 7-Eleven and stock up on some Spam musubis,” Kamaka said.

Chromiumcarbide hardnessHRC

The area is a couple hundred miles away from Rockport, the area hardest hit during the storm – but Woods and her family were taking cover during our interview.

Carbide Hardnesschart

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All three women told KHON2 they didn’t expect to deal with a hurricane when they left Hawaii, especially a category four storm.

Typically in our industry, when someone says they are interested in carbide hardness what they are really interested in is carbide performance.  Carbide used to be considered either hard for long wear or tough to prevent breaking.  We have carbide tips in many different grades that will perform the best for a particular application.  Our Cermet II grade tips are extra long wearing.  Our Super C grade tips is both harder and tougher than most carbide grades, making it ideal for many applications.  We also have a Nail cutting grade that is very tough and less prone to breakage, even in the toughest applications.

Carbide rockwell hardnesscalculator

Tornadoes weren’t the only new thing for them to deal with. There’s also the threat of snakes coming out of their holes to avoid flood waters.

Official ratings for carbide hardness are ballpark estimates at the best and don’t necessarily have much to do with how well the carbide will perform.

In a Rockwell test, pressure is applied slowly through a particularly shaped diamond point.  This has almost nothing to do with how carbide is used in the real world.  Because of this, it is not uncommon to see carbide grades with a lower Rockwell value out wearing carbide grades with a higher Rockwell value.

“I’m just going to let Mother Nature do its thing. Whatever happens, happens. We’re just well prepared at this time,” Woods said.

Tungstencarbide rockwell hardness

Even though Harvey is thousands of miles away, it’s hitting close to home for many in Hawaii who have friends and family living in Texas.

“That’s what makes us a little uneasy being from the islands because we’re not used to it at all,” Williams said. “It’s starting to pick up, the rain and the wind. Like I said, it’s moving very slowly toward the San Antonio area so we’re having to wait it out.”

“We’re actually in our closet, they issued a tornado warning and we got the notification on the phone,” Woods said. “They’ve had a lot of highways and interstates blocked off due to flooding. They’re telling people to turn around, don’t drown. This is my first rodeo through all of this, so I’m new.”

A little further inland in San Antonio, Amanda Williams and Julia Kamaka are also dealing with tornado warnings and heavy rain.