gregormarwick
Diamond
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2007
- Location
- Aberdeen, UK
The recent thread about the Starret Webber gauge blocks got me curious about Chromium Carbide / Croblox as I had never really consciously recognised that they were something different. Starret Webber seem to be the only company that makes them with everyone else opting to make their higher grade gauge blocks out of Tungsten Carbide or ceramic Zirconia.
Starret Webber make the claim on their website that chromium carbide is the very best material for making reference standard gauge blocks out of, and then provide a table comparing the different materials. This table makes some assertions that honestly come off as somewhat spurious/snake oil to me. For example that the extremely low rate of thermal expansion of tungsten carbide is an objectively bad thing. And that chromium carbide is the "the most stable of all gage block materials" while admitting in their chart that they have "no long term data" for the stability of either ceramic or tungsten carbide.
I couldn't find any Mitutoyo literature that acknowledges the existence of chromium carbide gauge blocks. Tesa/Brown and Sharpe mention it briefly in a dismissive manor in the literature for their tungsten carbide gauge blocks - "Three times more wear resistant than chrome carbide"
I skimmed through the literature from Opus Metrology (the manufacturer of most of my gauge blocks) and found no mention of chromium carbide. Same with a few others.
The NPL's primary publication on gauge blocks mentions chromium carbide in passing but never elaborates on it. Same with the NIST handbook from a quick glance.
Is anyone aware of any objective third party literature on chromium carbide as a gauge block material?
Starret Webber make the claim on their website that chromium carbide is the very best material for making reference standard gauge blocks out of, and then provide a table comparing the different materials. This table makes some assertions that honestly come off as somewhat spurious/snake oil to me. For example that the extremely low rate of thermal expansion of tungsten carbide is an objectively bad thing. And that chromium carbide is the "the most stable of all gage block materials" while admitting in their chart that they have "no long term data" for the stability of either ceramic or tungsten carbide.
I couldn't find any Mitutoyo literature that acknowledges the existence of chromium carbide gauge blocks. Tesa/Brown and Sharpe mention it briefly in a dismissive manor in the literature for their tungsten carbide gauge blocks - "Three times more wear resistant than chrome carbide"
I skimmed through the literature from Opus Metrology (the manufacturer of most of my gauge blocks) and found no mention of chromium carbide. Same with a few others.
The NPL's primary publication on gauge blocks mentions chromium carbide in passing but never elaborates on it. Same with the NIST handbook from a quick glance.
Is anyone aware of any objective third party literature on chromium carbide as a gauge block material?