Wiktionary
n. (context inorganic compound English) a very hard, grey compound, chemical formula WC, used as an abrasive.
Wikipedia
Tungsten carbide (chemical formula: WC) is a chemical compound (specifically, a carbide) containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes for use in industrial machinery, cutting tools, abrasives, armor-piercing rounds, other tools and instruments, and jewelry.
Tungsten carbide is approximately two times stiffer than steel, with a Young's modulus of approximately 530–700 GPa (77,000 to 102,000 ksi), and is double the density of steel—nearly midway between that of lead and gold. It is comparable with corundum (α-) in hardness and can only be polished and finished with abrasives of superior hardness such as cubic boron nitride and diamond powder, wheels, and compounds.
Usage examples of "tungsten carbide".
He'd pushed a block of tungsten carbide into the loop as a friction brake.
It was he who years ago gave me the nickname of tungsten carbide because I wasn't easy to ….
The staples were pencil-thin in the center: tungsten carbide with a core of the cable itself, splaying out into two broad pads of hard steel alloy.
Here instead, you had the valve, the pink Bakelite case, and the now totally expended tungsten carbide battery.
The tungsten carbide bit sank easily into the heavy steel of the door.
I couldn't get the lid off the hopper, since the whole weight of the tank was on it, but the middle finger of the manipulator had a sharp, tungsten carbide fingernail, and the hopper was only made of steel.
They've got some mighty funny ideas, and they're bloodthirsty and hard as tungsten carbide.
The saws had edges of a tungsten carbide alloy and were driven by compressed air.