Sandvik Coromant is collaborating with one of Australia’s largest specialist heavy equipment manufacturers to drive circularity in manufacturing through a carbide tool recycling initiative.
The partnership, built on more than a decade of cooperation, focuses on collecting worn carbide inserts and carbide buttons used in high pressure grinding rollers (HPGRs) for recycling.
These components are integral to rock crushing operations, where HPGRs compress feed material between two rotating rollers using over 1,000 carbide buttons embedded in their crushing plates.
According to Sandvik Coromant, the buy-back scheme allows customers to return used carbide parts, which are then processed and transformed into raw material for new cutting tools.
The initiative aims to reduce the use of virgin materials, especially tungsten and cobalt, which are finite and energy-intensive to extract.
“Recycling is an integral part of modern manufacturing,” said Manny Valenza, Sales Cluster Manager for Southeast Asia at Sandvik Coromant.
“Ninety-five per cent of a used carbide insert can be recycled, with tungsten making up around 75 per cent of the material. As tungsten reserves are limited, it’s even more essential to preserve this vital material while minimising its environmental impact.”
To date, Sandvik Coromant has collected 17 tonnes of used carbide parts from the Australian manufacturer. These are stored in large metal drums at the customer’s site before being shipped to Sandvik Coromant’s Wolfram facility in Austria.
There, the parts undergo chemical processing to be converted back into high-quality carbide powder. The recovered material is said to have the same properties as tungsten freshly extracted from the company’s own Wolfram mine.
Sandvik Coromant said the initiative forms part of a closed-loop manufacturing process designed to reduce production waste and increase sustainability in the toolmaking industry.
In addition to its recycling efforts, the company supplies a wide range of industrial components and offers consultancy services to support efficient manufacturing practices.
More information about the company’s carbide recycling scheme and other circular economy initiatives is available at sandvik.coromant/carbide-recycling.
