The rarity and preciousness of materials depend on supply and demand. Cobalt is a binder in tungsten carbide steel tool materials. Up to half of the world’s cobalt supply comes from Congo. Concentrated cobalt production region makes the political stability of Congo a very important part of measuring the price of cobalt, but despite this, It’s still easy to get.
Recently, electric vehicles have become more and more popular, and the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries requires a large amount of cobalt, because currently only cobalt can keep the battery stable during charging and discharging. A set of lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles (type NMC532) contains about 8 kg of lithium, 35 kg of nickel, 20 kg of manganese and 14 kg of cobalt. The amount of cobalt used in electric vehicle battery manufacturing is 14 kilograms, equivalent to 14,000 grams; a cutting insert weighs 10 grams, of which 10 percent is cobalt, which is about 1 gram of cobalt per cutting insert. A set of electric vehicle battery manufacturing uses 14 kilograms of cobalt, which is equivalent to the cobalt usage of manufacturing 14,000 cutting insert!
With the current trend of developing electric vehicles all over the world, no country will do the opposite! Let’s not discuss for now that the internal combustion engine vehicles with an annual output of 98 million units will be replaced by electric vehicles. At present, electric vehicles are about to reach the goal of producing 10 million units per year. The cobalt used in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries in one year is equivalent to manufacturing 140 billion cutting insert! The amount of cobalt used in cutting tools is less than 1% of electric vehicle battery manufacturing.
As a cutting tools manufacturer, in this material battle, it will be destined to be like stopping a car with mantis arm! In this disproportionate competition, the only way we can do is to reduce our dependence on cobalt, the lower the better, so that we can avoid the chance of being caught in this ruthless vortex.
Let’s work together to find a way to reduce our dependence on cobalt!
A reference indicator for measuring cutting material savings and cutting tool strength: MCC Cutting Indicator (Minimum Consumable Cutting Indicator)
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