Green carbide – the verifiably sustainable carbide
!Do you want to quantify and reduce the carbon footprint of your products?
! Do you want more stable prices and to reduce political and logistical risks?
!Do you want to contribute to the closed-loop recycling process without compromising on quality or performance?
Then you will be just as pleased as we are about the launch of our 'green carbide' grade CT-GS20Y!
Some companies consider 'sustainability' as nothing more than a popular buzzword. For CERATIZIT, however, sustainability is deeply rooted in our DNA, so we make every effort to point the way through innovation. An outstandingly high recycling rate and conscientious use of energy are just two examples of this.
Now we are going one step further by launching CT-GS20Y, the first carbide on the market with a product carbon footprint that can be calculated – our carbide that is green at heart.
Responsible use of cobalt and tungsten resources:
Resource efficiency and low consumption of raw materials, recovering secondary raw materials from recycled carbide cutting tools and the development of innovative solutions with a minimal ecological footprint – all these are of the utmost priority for us.
Carbide and the components and tools produced from it are precious as they contain a high proportion of cobalt (Co) and tungsten (W), metals that are in great demand. Extracting cobalt and tungsten from ore is very costly and energy-intensive. To obtain one tonne of tungsten, 250 tonnes of ore have to be mined and processed. As a result, resource efficiency and low consumption of raw materials are our primary concern. In parallel to this, secondary raw materials must be recovered from recycled carbide cutting tools over the product life cycle so they can be used again.
At CERATIZIT we are constantly striving to develop innovative products which will allow our customers to continually increase the efficiency of their machining processes. At the same time we are always looking for solutions with a low ecological footprint, something we have now accomplished with CT-GS20Y, our first 'green carbide'. This combines the performance of a premium carbide grade with a deliberately sustainable production process.
Carbide recycling protects resources
The new CT-GS20Y carbide grade consists of over 99% high-quality secondary raw materials, i.e. recycled carbides from worn milling cutters, drills and other solid carbide tools. But CERATIZIT has gone even further: in addition, we guarantee low-carbon manufacturing by using low-emission production processes and energy sources as well as short transport routes throughout the entire process chain. The result is an unprecedented low carbon footprint of 2.6 kg of CO2 per kg of carbide for a premium carbide grade with maximum performance. By using this carbide for their cutting tools, CERATIZIT customers can significantly reduce their products' carbon footprint too. And there are further positive effects for our customers as well. As we use recycled carbide, they benefit from more stable prices and reliability of supply – without losing even a micron in terms of performance or repeatability.
A sustainable carbide grade with convincing performance
Ten percent submicron grades, with a tungsten grain size ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 µm, account for around 70 percent of drilling and milling tools in solid carbide and represent the most important grade group. That's why it made sense to first launch a sustainable grade for this wide field of applications. The decision is backed-up by the outcome of in-depth milling tests in which the CT-GS20Y was compared with well-established premium carbide grades and a downcycled grade produced by our own company – and yielded excellent results. Right from the get-go, the new CT-GS20Y green carbide grade scored results which were in some cases better than the premium grade, and always clearly superior to the downcycled product.
Tool life until tool breakage
Test parameters:
Tool life until wear mark width reached
Test parameters:
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) as a sustainability index
Can sustainability actually be proved in the cutting tool industry? What key indicator is meaningful for the sustainability of carbides? The initial analysis and verification of product-related carbon footprints is a rather elaborate process. The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) quantifies the greenhouse gases generated during production and transport of products and product groups. This factor enables objective comparisons to be made, while highlighting potential for improvement throughout the production chain. The corresponding investigation and calculation of the PCF for CT-GS20Y is based on the calculation basis of the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) for the CERATIZIT Reutte production site, which was verified by Quality Austria in accordance with ISO 14064-1:2019.
How can a company develop and produce sustainable carbide? There are various answers to this question. By working intensively on the preparation and processing of secondary raw materials, using sustainably generated energy, always keeping its plant technology up to date, and constantly working on the efficiency of the individual processes within the value chain. This is not something that can happen overnight. So it has really paid off that CERATIZIT has been examining the production processes from the powder to the finished product for decades now and deliberately relies on the use of secondary raw materials – in this case recycled carbide.
Shown here for comparison is the PCF for the new carbide grade CT-GS20Y and the PCF for a conventional reference grade produced in Reutte. Also shown are two hypothetical reference cases based on the data of the reference grade from the Reutte site. These illustrate how using a different electricity mix affects the PCF. The footprint of the average electricity mix for Germany and China was used in this comparison.
Source: European Environment Agency (www.eea.europa.eu) – 2019
Source: The International Energy Agency (www.iea.org) – 2019
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