Views: 0 Author: Shawn Publish Time: 2026-10-20 Origin: Site
NINGBO, Zhejiang, China — October 12, 2026 — Hengpu (Ningbo) Laser Technology Co., Ltd. today announced the release of its 3D laser-printed ceramic wear layer for engineering cutting picks, a technology designed to solve one of the industry's most expensive inefficiencies: the steel tooth body wearing out long before the tungsten carbide tip it was built to hold.
By depositing a dense, metallurgically bonded ceramic composite directly onto the pick body, the company reports service life gains of up to 200% in abrasive rock, with carbide utilization at scrap rising from the typical 40–55% to 85–100%.
A cutting pick is a two-part system: a tungsten carbide tip doing the cutting, and an alloy steel body holding it in position. In quartz, granite, concrete and slag, those two parts do not wear at the same speed.
Quenched-and-tempered tool steel in the 45–52 HRC range simply cannot survive sustained abrasion. The body erodes, the tip loses its supporting shoulder, and the pick is pulled — often with half of its carbide still intact. The carbide is not consumed. It is discarded.
For operators, the arithmetic of that failure is unforgiving:
The drum stops. The cutter head is opened. Picks are changed by hand, in dust, usually against a shift change.
Lost throughput during a change-out window routinely exceeds the purchase price of the picks themselves.
Because wear is uneven, adjacent picks get changed early as well, to keep cutting geometry within tolerance.
“The pick is the cheapest item on that list,” the company notes. “The stoppage is not.”
Hengpu does not apply a coating. Using directed-energy deposition — laser cladding — a focused laser melts a shallow track on the pick body while a ceramic-metal powder feedstock is injected into the melt pool. A wear-resistant structure between 1.5 mm and 4.0 mm thick is built up layer by layer and fuses into the substrate.
There is no adhesive, no mechanical keying, and no heat-affected softening of the shank. The result is a graded interface hard enough to resist abrasion at 60–66 HRC (grade dependent) while retaining enough toughness to absorb percussion.
The process runs four stages:
Digital path planning — field wear data determines where material goes: heavy on the cheek, tapering to nothing at the tip seat.
Surface activation — controlled-atmosphere cleaning and preheating eliminate scale and porosity at the bond line.
Layer-by-layer cladding — a robotic six-axis laser head deposits the composite with real-time monitoring of hardness and dilution.
Finish and braze — ground to tolerance, inspected, then tipped with the customer's specified carbide grade.
Hardness alone has never solved this problem. Tungsten carbide wears at a known, predictable rate; an unprotected steel body wears three to six times faster. The design target is therefore not maximum hardness, but matched wear rate.
When body and tip recede together, the pick holds its designed cutting geometry for most of its service life. The tip stays supported, the pick stays sharp, and both components reach end of life at the same moment. One carbide tip purchased, one carbide tip used.
Approach | Limitation in the field | Laser-clad ceramic layer |
|---|---|---|
Thicker or harder steel body | Brittleness rises, impact fractures, still loses to quartz | Hardness without brittleness; graded interface absorbs impact |
Thermal spray / HVOF | Mechanical bond, spallation under impact, typically under 0.5 mm | Metallurgical fusion, 3–8× thicker, survives percussion |
Weld-deposited hardfacing | High dilution, distorted shank, cracked beads, inconsistent hardness | Low dilution, robotic repeatability, documented hardness per batch |
Carbide insert studs | Costly, limited geometry, creates stress concentrators | Conforms to any pick geometry, including curved cheeks |
The technology is specified to the duty, not the reverse. Gains are largest where abrasion — not pure impact — is the limiting factor:
Longwall shearer drums — abrasive coal with stone partings; pick changes per metre of face advance drop sharply.
Roadheader and tunnelling booms — rock abrasion plus intermittent impact, where tip retention is the bottleneck.
Cold planers and asphalt milling — highly siliceous aggregate, the classic body-wear application.
Trenchers and rock saws — continuous cutting with no natural change-out window.
Rotary tillers and ripper shanks — soil carrying flint, slag or recycled concrete.
Demolition and dredging tools — any duty where steel erosion defeats the carbide.
In predominantly impact-dominated duty the improvement is smaller but still present, because tip retention improves even when overall wear rates are high.
Rather than rely on a generic multiplier, Hengpu recommends a four-step check before specifying a layer grade:
Audit scrapped picks. What percentage is retired because the body is gone while the tip still has usable volume?
Measure the tip remaining. Estimate residual carbide height on a sample of 20–30 scrapped picks.
Price your downtime. Put a figure on one hour of stopped drum or boom, then on one change-out cycle.
Multiply by monthly consumption. If your body-wear scrap rate exceeds roughly 30%, the payback calculation usually becomes straightforward.
Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
Ceramic layer hardness | 60–66 HRC (grade dependent) |
Layer thickness | 1.5–4.0 mm, graded to geometry |
Bond type | Metallurgical fusion (laser cladding) |
Carbide utilization at scrap | 85–100% (vs. 40–55% conventional) |
Tip compatibility | All standard tungsten carbide grades and geometries |
Product form | Finished cutting picks, ready to braze and run |
Quality documentation | Hardness report, thickness check, bond inspection per batch |
Lead time | Quotation within 24 hours; production schedule confirmed per batch |
Can the ceramic layer be applied to our existing pick model?
Yes. The layer conforms to any pick geometry, including curved cheeks. Hengpu supplies finished picks built to your model or drawing; the company does not offer toll cladding or contract processing.
Will the layer crack under impact?
The graded ceramic-metal interface is designed to absorb percussion. Hardness and dilution are monitored in real time during cladding, and each batch is documented.
Does it change our brazing or tip specification?
No. Picks are delivered ground to tolerance and ready for your specified tungsten carbide grade and brazing procedure.
What is needed for a quotation?
Four items: pick model or drawing, required carbide tip grade, the rock or material being cut (including silica/quartz content if known), and monthly consumption volume.
Hengpu (Ningbo) Laser Technology Co., Ltd. develops and manufactures ceramic wear layer technology for engineering cutting tools, serving mining, tunnelling, road milling, trenching and demolition applications. The company manufactures and sells its own finished cutting picks and does not provide toll cladding, contract processing, or process licensing to third parties.
Quotation requests receive a response within 24 business hours. Drawings and samples are handled confidentially.
Media / sales contact: Hengpu (Ningbo) Laser Technology Co., Ltd. — Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Request a specification and firm price: send your pick model, carbide grade and cut material.
