Tungsten carbide is widely used in carbide tools. However, its production process generates a significant number of end-of-life products and by-products. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient recycling methods and investigate the remanufacturing of tungsten carbide using recycled materials. Herein, we have recovered 99.9% of the tungsten in cemented carbide hard scrap as tungsten oxide via an alkali leaching process. Subsequently, using the recovered tungsten oxide as a starting material, tungsten carbide has been produced by employing a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) method. SHS is advantageous as it reduces the reaction time and is energy-efficient. Tungsten carbide with a carbon content of 6.18 wt % and a particle size of 116 nm has been successfully synthesized by optimizing the SHS process parameters, pulverization, and mixing. In this study, a series of processes for the highefficiency recycling and quality improvement of tungsten-based materials have been developed.

Owing to increasing demand of rare metals present in ICT products, it is necessary to promote the rare metal recycling industry from an environmental viewpoint and to prevent climate change. Despite the fact that information for toxic substances is partly indicated, a legal basis and an international standard indicating usage of rare metals is insufficient. In order to address this issue, a newly created study group of environment and climate change at the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is doing research to develop methodologies for recycling rare metals from ICT products in an eco-friendly way. Under this group, the Republic of Korea has established two international standards related to rare metals present in ICT products. The first is ‘Release of rare metal information for ICT products (ITU-T L.1100)’ and the other is ‘Quantitative and qualitative analysis methods for rare metals (ITU-T L.1101)’. A new proposal for recommending the provision of rare metal information through a label by manufacturers and consumer/recycling businesses has been approved recently and is supposed to be published later in 2016. Moreover, these recommendations are also being extended to IEC, ISO and other standardization organizations and a strategy to reinforce the ability for domestic standardization is being established in accordance with industrial requirements. This will promote efficient recycling of rare metals from ICT products and will help improve the domestic supply of rare metals.

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• Russian Mineral Market Flow and Economic Direction for Securing Stable Resources
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  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2019; 26(4): 345.     CrossRef
• Trends and Implications of International Standardization for Rare Earths
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  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2018; 25(2): 165.     CrossRef

The monolayer engineering diamond particles are aligned on the oxygen free Cu plates with electroless Ni plating layer. The mean diamond particle sizes of 15, 23 and 50 μm are used as thermal conductivity pathway for fabricating metal/carbon multi-layer composite material systems. Interconnected void structure of irregular shaped diamond particles allow dense electroless Ni plating layer on Cu plate and fixing them with 37-43% Ni thickness of their mean diameter. The thermal conductivity decrease with increasing measurement temperature up to 150°C in all diamond size conditions. When the diamond particle size is increased from 15 μm to 50 μm (Max. 304 W/mK at room temperature) tended to increase thermal conductivity, because the volume fraction of diamond is increased inside plating layer.