The company primarily provides carbon electrodes, cathodes, and furnace linings, as well as graphite materials, finished products, and composite materials for the electronics and semiconductor industries, automotive and machinery industries, high-temperature industries, and other industrial applications (such as mold manufacturing and non-ferrous metal smelting).
SGL's specialty graphite products include: isostatically pressed, extruded, and vibration-molded graphite (including high-purity graphite with an ash content of less than 5 PPM), carbon-carbon composite materials, flexible graphite foil, and graphite soft and hard felts.
Because graphite has lubricating properties, the abrasive wear of graphite on carbide cutting tools differs from the abrasive wear caused by ordinary carbide abrasives. Tool wear is considered to be the result of the combined effects of the following factors:
(1) Abrasive and chemical wear of the Co phase, leading to WC/Co interface breakage;
(2) Repeated cyclic stress causing structural defects in the WC/Co structure;
(3) Micro-fracture before structural failure. Regarding coated carbide cutting tools, flank wear is considered the primary form of tool wear during high-speed graphite milling; therefore, TiN coatings do not improve tool life. According to the international standard Norm ISO 8688.2, flank wear of TiN-coated carbide end mills (diameter 1000 mm) is summarized as "uniform flank failure phenomenon."
