Researchers 3D Print Tungsten Carbide Without the Waste

Tungsten carbide is one of the hardest materials known to manufacturing, which is exactly why it has been so difficult to 3D print. Conventional powder bed fusion struggles with the material's extreme melting point and tendency to crack during cooling. A team at Hiroshima University, working with Mitsubishi Materials Hardmetal Corp., claims to have solved the problem with a hybrid process that softens rather than fully melts the powder.

The technique combines 3D printing with hot-wire deposition. Instead of blasting tungsten carbide-cobalt powder with enough energy to fully liquefy it, the system heats the wire feedstock to a temperature where it plasticizes and fuses onto the build surface without going through a complete melt phase. That subtle shift reduces thermal stress, which is the main cause of cracking and porosity in tungsten carbide parts.

The result is a near-full-density component with industrial-grade hardness that requires less cobalt and less tungsten carbide powder than traditional sintering or subtractive methods. For industries that use tungsten carbide for cutting tools, drill bits, and wear-resistant components, the waste reduction alone is significant. Tungsten carbide powder is expensive, and machining a hardened blank can waste 80 percent of the material.

If the process scales from laboratory samples to production geometry, it could change how the hardest industrial components are made. Aerospace, oil and gas, and metalworking all rely on tungsten carbide for parts that outlast steel by a wide margin. A 3D printing path that preserves hardness while cutting material waste would be a genuine breakthrough.