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Several similar patents followed by the study group which were applied for only in Germany, Great Britain, and the US. The patent rights were bought at the end of 1925 by Friedrich Krupp Aktiengesellschaft in Essen/Germany, which had recognised the high potential of this new class of materials for the machining (and later also for the ordnance) industry. However, patents were acquired also by General Electric in the US (then forming a subsidiary: Carboloy) and sublicenses were given to Firth Stirling, Allegheny, Fansteel and others. On June 10, 1926 the name WIDIA was entered into the register of trademarks (referring to the German words Wie Diamant–i.e: Like Diamond) and an arduous work programme started to transform lab scale experiments into industrial production. The first product (Widia N–WC-6Co) was presented at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1927, where a marvelling group of international engineers followed the machining of high-strength manganese steel.
At first, only small amounts of WIDIA were produced at the Krupp works , and even less in the rest of the world; the price of the material was still extremely high. However, the increasing demand for steel and tools in Germany at the beginning of the thirties rapidly increased the sales from about 12 tons per year to 500 tons at the end of World War II. These data clearly demonstrate the importance of the new material for the German industry prior to and during war time. In this regard it is again interesting to read K.C. Li’s commentary in his book on TUNGSTEN: During World War II, the Germans were the first to use tungsten carbide core in high velocity armour piercing projectiles. It was these tungsten projectiles, more than Rommel, that almost made Germany’s North African campaign a success. The famous British tanks virtually "melted" when hit by these tungsten carbide projectiles.
Nevertheless, in particular after World War II, hardmetals became an international commodity and rapid advancements occurred in both science and technology. Today the product hardmetal has reached a very high technical standard and is produced by almost all industrial countries in more than 200 production units worldwide. Their application is extremely widespread and includes metal cutting, machining of wood, plastics, composites, and soft ceramics, chipless forming (hot and cold), mining, construction, rock drilling, structural parts, wear parts and military components.
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